Monteverdi and Busenello: A Construction of Ironies

Source

L’Incoronazione di Poppaea

Libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello

Music by Claudio Monteverdi

Italian Baroque opera reached its full development, known as opera seria, by the early 1720’s and dominated Europe for most of the remainder of the century.  L’Incoronazion di Poppaea is one of my favorite Baroque operas; for its seemingly superficial plot, its dark depths, its struggles, its ironies.

Ellen Rosand has a wonderful article entitled “Seneca and the Interpretation of L’Inocoronazione di Poppaea” and if you have access to JSTOR you should go read right now.

There are two pivotal points in her essay that I love: her careful observation of the personalities of Busenello the librettist and Monteverdi the composer, and the way she  helps the reader see the shift of meaning in the opera when the music interprets the libretto.

This Side of the Pond

-ward is an interesting suffix I've come to adore. Obsessing over its many, I find rather poetic, constructions...

backward
forward
westward
sternward
starward

...I worked myself into dilemma: -ward vs. -wards. When to add the S?

He walked toward me.
He walked towards me.

Are one of these sentences incorrect? As it turns out, it's a case of American vs. British English. Adding the S is a British practice whereas we fast talking folks tend to drop the aspirant sibilant (whoa, think clearly Anne. Thanks Raymond!). How did this catch my attention? I recently relocated to Boston and, surprise, the citizens are frighteningly consistent about the S.