Feminine Nero?
Sir: As probably the last surviving soloist — albeit a minor one — in the Oxford University Opera Club's historical introduction to the theatre of Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppaea in December 1927, conducted by Jack (later Sir Jack) Westrup and produced by Michael Martin-Harvey, I feel I must challenge the view of Rodney Milnes (Opera, 9 June) that the part of Nero at Glyndebourne should have been taken by a soprano. Sung by a tenor, he writes, 'the character of Nero is inevitably coarsened'. But has anyone ever suggested that Nero's character was not coarse? The delight with which I listened to Sumner Austin (who died in 1981 aged 92) singing those amorous and lyrical duets with Dorothy Augood as Poppaea during that memorable week in Oxford's New Theatre has never been surpassed (not to mention Freddie Grisewood's performance as Seneca) and to suggest that Nero could have been sung by a woman seems to me to accentuate the general implausibility of much opera.
As a slightly embarrassed young tenor I had to sing to a charming young maid- servant in a duet that 'to thy breast of milk and roses, in my thoughts I aye aspire'. Would Mr Milnes have had those words sung by a woman too?!
Justin Evans
Glebe House, Church Stretton, Shropshire
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