Poppaea
New Focus, 2024
8/10
The composer and soprano Michael Hersch tells the tale of Nero from different angles, where a powerful delivery from multiple voices and libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann is present.
Disc 1 starts the listen with a firm mood, where Poppaea and Nero sing of how the birth of their child will negate all the problems associated with Nero killing his mother, as Steve Davislim’s tenor, via Nero, unfolds across tense and dark musicianship. At the end, during “Poppaea Witnesses Octavia’s Death”, mysterious keys and a gentle ambience are met with Silke Gäng’s stunning mezzo-soprano.
Disc 2 begins with the crashing sounds of “Milk Bath”, before a dense and ominous climate builds, while “The Great Fire” is indeed intense and allows for Ah Young Hong’s booming soprano to guide the bristling dynamics. ““This World” exits the story, and is distinctly intimate, though in a way that’s unsettling and cryptic.
The dialogue follows Octavia in her cell awaiting death, where the orchestral manipulation and profoundly detailed singing resonates in a contemporary opera fashion via the exhilarating vision thanks to Hersch.
Travels well with: Tessa Brinckman- Take Wing, Roll Back; Ekmeles- We Live The Opposite Daring