The culmination of a three-year Monteverdi project led by conductor William Christie and director Pier Luigi Pizzi at Madrid’s Teatro Réal, L’incoronazione di Poppea brings a potent blend of sex and politics, high drama and comedy. Leading the cast are Danielle de Niese as Poppea, Philippe Jaroussky as Nerone, Max Emanuel Cencic as Ottone and Anna Bonitatibus as Ottavia. William Christie – the French-based American conductor, best known for his work with his ensemble Les Arts Florissants – started 2012 at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, conducting The Enchanted Island, a spectacular new pastiche featuring music by Handel, Vivaldi and other composers,. Here, he conducts an operatic performance recorded in 2010 at Madrid’s Teatro Réal: Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, with its potent Ancient Roman blend of sex and politics, high drama and comedy. “William Christie’s achievement with Les Arts Florissants is enormous,” wrote Spain’s leading newspaper, El País. “With 17 musicians playing period instruments, he evoked a veritable orgy of nuances, subtly created atmosphere and showed a perfect sense for the accents of the piece.” Poppea proved an apt culmination to Christie’s three-year project mounting Monteverdi’s three operas in Madrid with the Italian director Pier Luigi Pizzi, whose productions are always notable for their elegance and beauty.