The Komische Oper Berlin is one of three opera houses/companies in Berlin. Historically the mandate was a "house for the people", meaning that all the works were translated into and sung in German. More recently the house has expanded into a greater repertoire, with lesser performed russian and french works being presented. The Komische Oper Berlin's other great focus has been pushing the boundaries of direction and how traditional operas are presented.
In the case of Monteverdi's "The Coronation of Poppea", the music from the 1600s has been radically modernised by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin to include modern and electronic instruments. What this achieves is a far greater sound palate, with which to accompany the drama onstage, led by conductor Matthew Toogood (coincidentally also Australian, but Berlin based). The drama created by intendant and director Barrie Kosky (rounding out ironically the Australian trilogy here) is extremely clear, distilling the complexity of the story and characters, and captures the raw emotions of the piece: eroticism, danger, murder, lust, wisdom, infatuation, and more. An ancient Roman thriller, where essentially everyone except the two main protagonists is murdered.
A great advantage of the Komische Oper for foreigners is that each seat has an individual surtitle screen, which can display the real-time sung text in either German, English, French or Turkish. Tickets are extremely well priced (starting at €12), and at the conclusion of the performance one is even gifted a complimentary chocolate.
There are only two performances left of "Poppea" - tonight 26. May at 7:30pm and 3. June at 7:30pm.
Here is Elena Kats-Chernin discussing her re-writing of the work for 2017:
