The question of ambiguity on the creation of the subject in L’Incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi

Abstract

This essay aims to discuss the last and most polemical opera of Claudio Monteverdi. I intend to demonstrate how Monteverdi was less concerned with any possible philosophical or political connotations of Busenello’s libretto, but perceived, otherwise, the enormous potential of the text to apply his mature compositional virtuosity, allied to his sophisticated perception of human psychology. With Poppea, Monteverdi reaches the climax of what he had been pursuing since the times of L’Orfeo and Arianna: the perfect imitazione of subjectivity in music.
Keywords: Monteverdi – Poppea - subjectivity