Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 18, 2014

L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppaea) is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi (pictured), with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. It was first performed during the 1643 carnival season in Venice. One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it describes how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, achieves her ambition to be crowned empress. The opera was revived in 1651, but was then neglected until the score was rediscovered in 1888. Since the 1960s, the work has been performed and recorded many times. The original manuscript of the score does not exist; two surviving copies from the 1650s differ significantly. How much of the music is actually Monteverdi's is disputed. Details of the original cast are largely speculative, and there is no record of the opera's initial public reception. Despite these uncertainties, it is generally accepted as part of the Monteverdi operatic canon, his last and perhaps his greatest work. Written when the genre of opera was only a few decades old, the music for L'incoronazione di Poppea has been praised for its originality and melody, and it helped to redefine the boundaries of theatrical music.

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