The political and sexual machinations on the stage at Angel Place in Sydney, ostensibly depicting an event during the inglorious reign of Emperor Nero in 54–68 CE, might be interpreted in a very contemporary light in terms of politics and society. An opera that represents ruthless political ambition allied to lust, cruelty, corruption, and general amorality, can certainly find any number of present-day resonances without stretching credibility too far. But Claudio Monteverdi’s final opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642), was directly relevant to the political situation in the first half of the seventeenth century in Italy, while simultaneously exploring some of the oldest and enduring philosophical questions regarding political thought and practice.

Venice, where the opera was first performed, had a complex and troubled relationship with the hegemony of Rome, both the seat of the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. The incumbent pope, Urban VIII, was nepotistic, corrupt and determined on extending the papal territories, thus directly threatening republican Venice: a figure, in Venetian eyes, who could be seen to have many parallels with Nero. In the opera, republican virtues of self-mastery and discipline are contrasted with the barbaric and unbridled desires of an unruly emperor. This includes popes, embodied in the opera by the diametrically opposed figures of Nero and Seneca.