Aria: ‘Oblivion soave’ (Arnalta's Lullaby) from L’incoronazione di Poppea (Venice, 1643)
Composer: Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) | Librettist: Giovanni Francesco Busenello (c. 1598–1659)

‘Oblivion soave’ is one of the most intimate moments in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Monteverdi’s final opera. On the eve of Poppea’s coronation, her nurse Arnalta sings her to sleep. Over a gently rocking, repeating bass line, the lullaby seems to wrap Poppea in stillness, yet a quiet tension lingers in the falling phrases and in Arnalta’s words, which praise her mistress’s ‘thieving eyes’. Coming just before the attempted assassination of Poppea by her lover Ottone (disguised as his former lover, Drusilla), this fragile scene – feeling both tender and faintly ominous, and suspended between comfort and foreboding – invites a moment of calm within a drama otherwise driven by ambition, desire, and political volatility.

Part of a series of four videos, this first instalment accompanies Bellot Ensemble’s debut album, Cupid’s Ground Bass, released on 21 November 2025 by First Hand Records. The ensemble warmly thanks Continuo Foundation, whose support made both the debut album and the video recording sessions a the Voces8 Foundation possible.

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Bellot Ensemble is the 2025-2027 BBC New Generation Baroque Ensemble and a Britten Pears Young Artist ensemble. The group specialises in vivid and imaginative performances of 17th-century music, grounded in historical research and contemporary creativity.

PERFORMERS
Kieran White tenor
Daniel Murphy theorbo

CREDITS
Audio: John Croft (Chiaro Audio)
Producer: Thomas Pickering
Video: Bobby Williams
Label: First Hand Records
Filmed at: VOCES8 Centre, London
Supported by: Continuo Foundation

Cupid's Ground Bass is available to purchase from First Hand Records and to stream on all major digital platforms.