YOU wait decades for Monteverdi’s Poppaea to come along, and then suddenly there are two almost together, Ryedale Festival’s in July, and now Opera North’s. At least the old boy is still getting a look-in; as the true father of opera he deserves it.

Different productions, different Poppaea? Yes, always, because if you devise your own edition, with new translation, you avoid the need to pay royalties on any previous one. So conductor Laurence Cummings and director Tim Albery have come up with yet another ‘performing’ version (is there any other kind?).

Updating the action to the permissive 1960s inevitably brings with it a downgrading of the translation to the explicit and the prosaic. The subtlety, the nuances of the original are swept aside. Similarly, Albery gives us plenty of smooching and writhing. Do audiences’ imaginations count for so little that everything has to be spelled out?

The eight-piece band is on stage, a quartet on either side, each led from the harpsichord, one manned by Cummings himself. His arms swirl from time to time but basically the players are on their own and provide luscious ensemble, especially the harp and two theorbos. Hannah Clark’s set doubles as Nero’s quarters and, eventually, anteroom to several murders.

Morals gradually go downhill from a polite dinner party (while Cupid and the young goddesses do their prologue) to complete disintegration as Nero’s lust assumes all the charm of a boa constrictor. Sandra Piques Eddy rekindles her sultry Carmen (her previous role here) and similarly lusty tone as Poppaea. James Laing as Nero offers a lithe countertenor but less than ardent lover.

Christopher Ainslie, the other countertenor, is rather the reverse as Ottone: torn emotionally between Poppaea and the willing Drusilla, but vocally less compelling. Katherine Manley’s stylish tone and flexible manner make for a compelling Drusilla. James Creswell is a strong, avuncular Seneca, with Fiona Kimm a more than useful foil as Poppaea’s nurse. Though handicapped by an ill-fitting pink suit and tousled hair – signs, perhaps, of a discarded wife – Catherine Hopper offers a determined Ottavia.

Ultimately, however, Roman horrors transplant uneasily to the present era and this production is much more satisfying as music than as theatre. Martin Dreyer

Further performances tomorrow, October 24 & 30, then on tour. www.operanorth.co.uk