Romans Behaving Badly

And here’s the second opera I went to this past weekend: L’Incoronazione di Poppea! Before starting with a summary, describing the set, or raving about the music and talent, I want to give the photography credit to Sean Moonsammy – a student at the Aaron Copland School of Music as well as one of the leads (Ottone) in the Thursday and Saturday performances of the opera.

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I must say, before the performance started, I had no clue regarding the plot as the program’s summary of Part I and Part II was extremely convoluted; so many different characters, how would I keep track??? I decided that I’d figure out the story on my own as the performers did their thing on stage.

(For those of you who are uninterested in the plot and who would rather read about the musical and talent aspects, skip ahead.)

Ultimately, the story is about the conquering of love over all other things. The opera begins with the goddesses Virtue (Rachael Gomes) and Fortune (Jin-Xiang Yu) arguing with each other about who was the more powerful and beloved. The disagreement is brought to a halt when Amore (Tatianna Overton) walks on stage. Originally, Amore is a god and hence male. Although the director cast a female for the part, she definitely pulled out the masculinity that the character required. Amore declares that he is the most powerful, and the following story ensues to prove him right.

The Roman emperor Nero (Victor Starsky) is known to have been a crazy, tyrannical, and maniacal ruler. Who other than a maniac would burn down Rome in order to make more room for statues of himself? He is married to Ottavia (Rebecca Paul), a woman he seems to no longer care for. He has been secretly – though most of the Roman court knows about it – meeting Poppea (Candace Matthews) at her house. On top of this, Poppea seems to already have a man, as Ottone (Justin Werner) returns home and is angered to see that Nero is in her rooms. What a tangled mess!

Nero’s closest friend and advisor is Seneca (Colin Whiteman). Throughout the story, he seems to be edging nearer and nearer to death. In the first act, he is visited by the goddess Pallade (Natasha Bekker) in a dream, warning him of his demise. Later on, he has conflicting opinions about Nero’s decision to divorce Ottavia. Finally, Poppea convinces Nero that Seneca must be executed, as he would only prevent her from becoming empress. For this reason, Seneca is sentenced to kill himself and so ends the first act with him pointing a dagger at his veins.

And what of Ottone? We can’t forget that this man is seriously pissed off at the fact that his wife, or girlfriend, is sleeping with another guy. Through his frustration, he finds himself falling for Drusilla (Sachie Ueshima). Though he may no longer have feelings for Poppea at this point, he still wants to seek revenge. He goes to the spurned Ottavia who instructs him to murder Poppea. As he is about to fulfill his obligations, Amore steps in and prevents him – he obviously isn’t completely over her. Nero banishes Ottavia, Ottone, and Drusilla (as they are now a couple) and happily crowns Poppea as Empress.

I must apologize for the length of that summary. I understand the story seems a bit confusing yet that is the best I can do to explain it. I have left out minor side stories for simplicity’s sake, and have left out some characters as well. I must, though, mention one omitted character: Arnalta (Francisco Corredor). Arnalta is Poppea’s maid and later becomes Empress Poppea’s nutrice or nurse. As one might imagine, nurses usually were motherly figures to their younger wards. But, as you can tell by the performer’s name, this nurse was played by a man. Arnalta is the comic relief of the entire show. In the final scene, the coronation, she dresses up fancily and sings about how happy she is about finally ending up somewhere important in life. The drag aspect of the casting makes the scene even more comical.

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Monteverdi is the first major opera composer in history, living in the late Renaissance/early Baroque period. For this reason, his music sounds different than the opera one might be accustomed to – Carmen, The Barber of Seville, and the well-known bel canto composers. It also differs greatly from the music of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (which I saw the night before). Personally, Monteverdi’s style is most pleasing to my ears as it is similar to the early classical (and by this I mean Renaissance and Baroque) music which I favor.

It was such a treat to listen to such a talented instrumental ensemble, under the direction of Christa Patton, playing various period instruments; the viola da gamba, harpsichord, baroque harp, lute, recorder, theory, and sackbut. Never before have I seen such a collection of instruments! On top of this, the cast’s acting abilities and chemistry drew the audience into the characters they portrayed and their vocal talent was phenomenal. If you closed your eyes, which isn’t that hard to do during a three-hour long opera, you could easily imagine you were listening to a professional recording or production.

The set was extremely simplistic, but as I envision opera, an over-the-top set is not always a necessity. The voices and the music are what make this art form singular, not the special effects and lavish furnishings.

I’ve attended several operas in my life including the Met. Queen’s College Opera Studio’s production of L’Incoronazione di Poppea definitely was one of my favorites. It seems to me that there is a sort of dedication that comes with student performers that is not always visible in professionals. If you’ve ever doubted the talent of young classical voice students, make sure to look at Queens College’s Aaron Copland School of Music’s calendar of performances and witness the future of opera in the making!

L’Incoronazione di Poppea
LeFrak Concert Hall
Sunday, March 3, 2013

Marina B. Nebro