Of all the sublime moments in operatic literature, few surpass “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo” (I gaze at you, I possess you), the final love duet between Nero and Poppea in Monteverdi’s “L’incoronazione di Poppea”.
This enduring masterpiece aims to represent love’s supreme power over all other forces through the unifying of the couple in unbreakable bonds of love.
Due to inherent limitations in our own perceptive and cognitive abilities, we find the anticipation and realization of unexpected events and connections (within certain parameters) extremely satisfying. We subconsciously predict moment-to-moment what’s going to happen next, and to a large degree, the fulfillment and/or denial of these predictions dictates the amount of creative enjoyment we experience.