L'Incoronazione di Poppea.

With no Baroque tradition to speak of, L'Opera de Montreal could hardly have been expected to produce a memorable version of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Yet a great success it was, both for its deep casting and the intelligent direction of Renaud Doucet. By encouraging naturalism amid the classical ruins of a set on loan from Utah, and adding satiric touches to the formal dialogues of Fortune, Love and Virtue, this young Frenchman found a perfect rhetoric for a modern crowd, creating an atmosphere of moral ambivalence that the courtiers of Monteverdi's day could take for granted.

Lovers of vocal splendor were well served, notably by Canadian mezzo Noella Huet, who brought dark tone and verismo intensity to the role of Ottavia, while bass Gregory Atkinson, in double-rich voice as the philosopher Seneca, seemed so weary of his amoral circumstances that his rush to administer his own death sentence was believable. Still, the focus remained on the central roles: the narcissistic Roman emperor Nerone (Nero) and his mistress Poppea. As portrayed by Montrealers Daniel Taylor and Suzie LeBlanc, they were isolated by their youthful good looks, the sweet compatibility of their voices and their depraved indifference to others. Nerone seemed every inch the mad boy-king, even when his sentiments were affectionate on the surface. His ruthlessness in sentencing Drusilla (soprano Louise Marcotte, acting and singing well) to a slow death came as no surprise, and even his subsequent clemency was plausible in the context of his instability. Soprano LeBlanc was a more equivocal figure, not an intriguer so much as an unprincipled ingenue swept up by the lust of a powerful man.

Other good performances came from tenor Pascal Mondieig (the page boy) and soprano Marie Simoneau (the lady-in-waiting). Mezzo Odette Beaupre played the nurse Arnalta with strong voice and brilliant temperament. Stuffy in his Act I soliloquy, baritone Terence Murphy was believably torn as Ottone. There was no Lucan in this trimmed-down, three-hour production. Conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin paced the score with a sure sense of rhythm, and his Chapelle de Montreal created a soothing texture in the pit.