| dcterms.abstract | Big Picture is a contemporary Broadway-style musical comedy with a story adapted from Claudio Monteverdi’s 1643 opera L’incoronazione di Poppea (“The Coronation of Poppea”). Monteverdi’s opera is a story of lust, power, and corruption, set in the imperial Roman Empire. The opera follows the love affair of Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea as they conspire to banish Nero’s wife, the empress Ottavia, and crown Poppea queen. Meanwhile, Ottone, who is also in love with Poppea, becomes wrapped up in the empress’s plan to have Poppea killed. In this adaptation, with a book by Susan Murray and lyrics by Patrick Spencer, we have recast those archetypes into modern-day film industry tropes. The opera is both a torrid love story and a reflection on the lust for power—ideas that translate very well into a Hollywood setting. Nero is no longer emperor, but a film executive, and Poppy (Poppea) is his mistress, a young actress. Julie (Ottavia) is a star “of a certain age” whose romance with Nero ended long ago. While Ottone was not the opera’s central character, everyman Tony is the protagonist of our musical, which covers his rise to power at Nero Studios International (NSI). Along the way he meets Drew (Drusilla), the top assistant at NSI; Nathaniel (Nutrice), Julie’s frustrated manager; Andy (Arnalta), Poppy’s best friend; and Seneca, Nero’s second-in-command. When Tony finally reaches the top, having used and betrayed everyone around him, he looks back and realizes he wasn’t the hero of his own story. Ultimately he gives it all up to return to the audience, as a movie fan—that’s the role he was meant to play. The score draws on many styles, reflecting the inner worlds of the characters through a number of musical genres: Tony and Poppy, the up-and-coming generation, mostly sing in vernacular pop/rock styles; Julie and Seneca, part of the old guard, have music inspired by film noir and vaudeville; and Andy and Nathaniel, who strike up a romance of their own, serve the same purpose as the secondary/comedic couple in a traditional golden-age Broadway show, and their music echoes that tradition. This piano-vocal score would, in a future production of the musical, be arranged for an orchestra that could include strings, percussion, winds, brass, and some pop/rock instruments as well (keyboard and electric guitar). To aid readers in following the musical’s story, this score includes brief synopses between each song. | |
