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Pittsburgh Opera Center's weekend production of "The Coronation of Poppea" at the Byham Theater, Downtown, was a triumph for all concerned. Excellent musical performances and vivid staging brought to life an opera that is more than three centuries old and challenges contemporary notions of relevance and the way art is created. Baroque opera has yet to achieve acceptance as part of the mainstream of opera, and requires its performers to have specialized knowledge and skills. This weekend's success was achieved through Pittsburgh Opera Center's collaboration with Chatham Baroque, the Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music and a conductor from New York City Opera. "The Coronation of Poppea" was the final work of composer Claudio Monteverdi, who wrote the first great opera, "L'Orfeo," in 1607. He was 75 when "Poppea," a work of musical and dramatic quality akin to the masterpieces of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi, was created. Monteverdi was a brilliantly innovative composer, but "Poppea" doesn't fit the image of immortal art crafted by a solitary genius. Scholarship has shown it is likely that Monteverdi's students, already prospering on their own, helped their master complete the score. The magnificent finale, for example, is probably by Francesco Sacrati. A few other sections turn out to be from other composers' operas that had premiered a few seasons before "Poppea." The opera tells the story of the love affair between Roman emperor Nero and Poppea, and the futile attempts by his wife and her fiancee to end it. The production seen at the Byham was created at the Curtis Institute of Music by Chas Reder-Schieber. It opens in a contemporary business setting, with a woman who believes in luck putting down one who espouses virtue. Office machines, florescent lighting and contemporary attire add to the feeling that the comments could have been made at work last week. The words, however, are 360 years old. Since for many people today, anything before their own birth is ancient history and of minimal relevance, the updated production may aid in appreciating other ''modern'' attitudes in the libretto of this opera, written by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. There are no heroes in "Poppea," only degrees of villainy and weakness. The production flatters hip audiences with many other contemporary references. One of Nero's guards — dressed like a city policeman — turns a vocal ornament into the sound of a machine gun. When Nero's wife, defeated and banished, bids her farewell, the production winks at the audience by placing her before a chrome microphone stand, just like Evita. The cast, although mostly not baroque specialists, was extremely well prepared and performed with admirable style and exemplary diction. The ornament that the policeman used — a single pitch repeated with varying rapidity — was used flexibly to convey also terror (its original intent), sarcasm, doubt and laughter. The large cast, some returning for a second season and others new, was consistently impressive. Coral Owdom was riveting as Poppea. Magnificent last season in operas by Mozart and Gaetano Donizetti, she again made her vocal agility serve dramatic ends. Her coy manipulation of Nero in the second scene was masterful. Owdom and Matthew Shaw as Nero brought the opera to a memorable climax with the duet "Pur ti miro," celebrating the triumph of their love. Often cited as one of Monteverdi's finest achievements, it is shocking to consider the duet was probably by Sacrati. Shaw, also in his second season at Pittsburgh Opera Center, offered a well-nuanced portrayal of one of history's most vivid characters. His singing was as secure and dramatically inflected as his physical gestures. Two other returning singers were remarkable: Melissa Brezinsky used her luscious voice with impressive flexibility as a woman in love with Ottone, and Daniel Gross again showed real comic gifts as the stuffy poet Seneca. Countertenor Jeffrey Kim, currently studying at Curtis, was a guest artist who brought unforgettable vocal purity and beauty to the role of Ottone, Poppea's fiancee. First-year opera center singers also were impressive. Zara Barrett was a hoot as Damigella. Her facial expressions were wonderfully varied, and her singing was strongly profiled as well. Karin Caspi was strong in the unsympathetic role of spurned wife Ottavia and in the prologue. Javier Abreu, effective as one of the soldiers, took second prize at the recent Great Lakes Regional Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera Nation Council, held earlier this month on the same stage. Conductor Gary Wedow was the unifying force, and led from the harpsichord with pace and dramatic acuity. Chatham Baroque was the stylish pit band. Most of its work was carried by the continuo, in this case: Wedow, harpsichord; Vivian Montgomery, organ and a second harpsichord; Patricia Halvorsen, viola da gamba; J. Tracy Mortimore, violone; Jennifer Sayre, harp; and Scott Pauley and Luca Harris, guitar and theorbo. The opera, which lasts four hours and is rarely performed complete, was performed with dozens of small cuts. The most significant omission was the ensemble portion of the finale, probably because it requires a chorus. Mark Kanny can be reached at mkanny@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7877.
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