THE CORONATION OF POPPEA Plays London's Little Opera House 4/5-5/19

One of the earliest operas, written in the 1640s, Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, is to get a fresh treatment by Mark Ravenhill and Alex Silverman, with a new jazz-inspired orchestration, and featuring a cast of exciting singing talents.

The Coronation of Poppea, will premiere as part of the Little Opera House's first ever repertory season, with 10 performances from Tuesday April 5 to Thursday May 19.

A tale of the triumphant adultery between Poppea and Roman Emperor Nero, it will be directed by OperaUpClose Associate Director Mark Ravenhill, who is making his directorial debut with the company.

He says, "I wanted to stage The Coronation of Poppea 'up close' because I thought it would benefit from an intimate setting. Monteverdi didn't write it for a big 19th century opera house but for a more intimate theatre with a relatively small band. He didn't notate very much orchestration. For our production, Alex Silverman (whose Hamlet The Musical was a hit at last year's Edinburgh Fringe), will be providing new arrangements for an ensemble of jazz instruments. It was one of the very first operas ever written - and probably the very first that was ever written about real people rather than mythical people/gods. Its first audience in the 1640s must have found it bracingly realistic. It is unusual because of the lack of conventional morality: the two cruellest people get the happy ending and sing a beautiful closing duet. I'm providing a new English translation and I've cut the piece back so that is about the seven principal characters and the complex web of love, lust, cross-dressing and murder which binds them together."

The cast includes: Rebecca Caine (Ottavia), Tom Lowe (Arnalta), Jassy Husk (Drusilla), Jessica Walker (Nero), David Sheppard (Ottone), Zoe Bonner (Poppea), Adam Kowalczyk (Liberto/Soldier), Marcin Gesla (Seneca).

Rebecca Caine created the role of the adult Cosette in the first production of Les Miserables at the Barbican and made her opera debut at Glyndebourne as Amor in Peter Hall's production of Coronation of Poppea. She also joined the original cast of Phantom of the Opera to play Christine opposite Michael Crawford. She has had offers from numerous international opera companies ranging from Claudio Monteverdi to Peter Maxwell Davies. Most recently, in December 2010, Rebecca returned to the musical theatre stage as Lady Raeburn in Salad Days produced by the Tête-à-Tête opera company.

Jessica Walker recently completed a tour of her solo show commissioned and produced by Opera North - The Girl I left Behind Me - co-devised and written by her and director Neil Bartlett.

Mark Ravenhill is a playwright, actor and journalist, whose most famous plays include Shopping and f-ing Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House.

OperaUpClose is dedicated to presenting new, challenging and classic operas in intimate spaces using young world-class trained singers and directors. Award-winning Artistic Director Adam Spreadbury-Maher and Robin Norton-Hale are bringing opera to life for new audiences, offering extraordinary opportunity to experience the dramatic and musical event of opera close up. Spreadbury- Maher - whose other venue, Kilburn's c*ckTavern Theatre, was last November
awarded the Peter Brook Empty Space Dan Crawford Award for his work including a groundbreaking production of La Bohème - has transformed the King's Head Theatre into London's Little Opera House, the first new theatre dedicated to opera in the capital for more than 40 years. OperaUpClose was co-founded by Artistic Director Adam Spreadbury-Maher and producer Ben Cooper.

OperaUpClose's critically acclaimed production of La Bohè e has been nominated for both a 
Whatsonstage and an Olivier award.