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By Act 2 Octavia has become a raging fury and in colloquy with a reluctant Otho (the countertenor Michael Chance) nerves him gradually to attempt the murder of Poppaea while asleep in her garden [listen -- 'Tu che dagli avi miei' (Act 2), DVD2 chapter 7, 0:00-1:32]. He is to creep up on Poppaea disguised as far as possible in the outer raiment of Drusilla, a court lady in love with him. Otho assumes the part of murderer with dithering incompetence, and the plot is foiled in a coup de théâtre by the timely appearance of a Cupid armed with divine authority and no morals [listen -- 'Eccomi trasformato' (Act 2), DVD2 chapter 12, 3:35-4:50]. With a clemency known only to opera, Nero merely banishes Octavia and Drusilla, while allowing Otho to survive and become one of the four emperors in AD 69.

The nicest touch in this Amsterdam production by Pierre Audi is the flight of steps that leads diagonally from the stage into the orchestra pit. Characters come and go, therefore, among the players, and it adds to the unity of the musical conception that occasionally the neck of a lute will protrude into the bottom of the stage picture. Christophe Rousset conducts Les Talens Lyriques and his highly gifted soloists in an idiomatic performance that both delights and horrifies in its flagrant glorification of vice, crime and terrorism. It is almost a relief that the wondrous duetting to a ground of Nero and Poppaea at the end may in fact not be by Monteverdi [listen -- 'Ascendi, o mia diletta' (Act 3), DVD2 chapter 20, 9:10-10:46].

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