incoronazione di Poppea, L'

Opera by Claudio Monteverdi (libretto by Busenello, based on Tacitus), first produced at the Teatro S Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy, in the autumn of 1643. Modern editions have been produced by Jack Westrup (first British production, Oxford, 1927), Ernst Krenek, Vincent d'Indy, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Giorgio Ghedini, Raymond Leppard, Roger Norrington, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. It was the first opera not to be based on a mythical or religious theme, and tells how Poppea defeats her rivals and weds the Roman emperor Nero.