Michael Hersch: POPPAEA

• Label New Focus Recordings (FCR-390)
• Release Date February 23, 2024
• Patricia A production of Wien Modern and ZeitRäume Basel
  Ah Young Hong / Steve Davislim / Silke Gäng
  Ensemble SoloVoices
  Ensemble Phoenix Basel
  Jürg Henneberger

Michael Hersch’s arresting new one-act opera Poppaea begins and ends with a shocking act of violence. The first, the Prologue, feels like a punch, throwing us back in our seats, stunning us with its audacity. The last we see coming from the start, the tragic conclusion to a tale of transgression perpetrated against women caught up in a depraved, misogynistic world.

Poppaea Sabina (approx. 30 AD – 65 AD) is usually portrayed in history as a conniver, a striver of middling birth who orchestrated the death of Octavia (daughter of Claudius, approx. 42 AD – 62 AD) so that she could take her place as the wife of Nero, Emperor of Rome. Hersch’s opera, with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, seeks to explore this story from a woman's perspective, seeing both Octavia and Poppaea as victims of men’s fury and appetites. Like much of Hersch’s work, it foregrounds the psychological effects of trauma, confronting the audience with music that is emotionally searing and deeply profound.

Scene I – New Life opens with Poppaea in prayer to her mother. She wishes her mother could be there to witness the birth of Nero’s child, who can “rewrite the story” of her mother’s death. She tells of her dreams of how her mother committed suicide after a baseless claim of adultery. (“Just sixteen, / I watched you slice yourself open / like a melon / in penance for a crime you didn’t commit.”)

Poppaea and Nero sing of how the birth of their child will erase all the bad omens since Nero killed his mother. Their marriage and the birth of their child will be a fresh start, legitimizing their relationship and leaving past sins behind. However, foreboding tension is held in close dissonances in the orchestra, creating unstable beating and difference tones which are illusory but nonetheless powerful.

Poppaea is portrayed by soprano Ah Young Hong, for whom many of Hersch’s vocal works were written. Hong’s dramatic range is exceptional, and she and the orchestra entwine each other like a single stream, both human and ethereal. The instruments, against a dark ground, follow her every word with slashes of color and light.

In Scene V – Octavia we find Octavia in her cell, awaiting her death. She tells how Nero murdered her brother, Britannicus, when she was nine. She grieves that the philosopher Seneca, who could advise Nero to some degree (“He was—a kind of gate. / Kept me safe enough”), has been sent to Spain, and there is no one left to protect her or the city from Nero. By Scene VI – Poppaea Witnesses Octavia’s Death she's bleeding out, but not fast enough. Poppaea, asking her what pain and death are like, and saying her heart is too true, has Octavia moved to a warm bath to speed up the process.

Octavia is portrayed by German mezzo-soprano Silke Gäng, whose sweet tone and fragile vibrato show us she is blameless. Both Octavia and Poppaea express pain by singing soaring, sustained tones near the top of their register; it is as if terror has destroyed language itself. Then their voices drop down low to express what words they have, in hoarse tones that portray their emotional exhaustion.

Nero is richly sung by the Australian tenor Steve Davislim, with an affect that befits a mad king, ranging from cool indifference to crazed fury. Nero is not just a character but also a catalyst: he doesn’t change, but in his presence, women die.

Hersch’s orchestral gestures flash second by second, creating a constantly roiling soundscape, like the endless treachery and violence of ancient Rome. There are individual scenes, but they are all caught in a nightmare from which they can’t awaken.

The libretto was written by Stephanie Fleischmann, one of the most acclaimed librettists in contemporary music. She portrays the characters through spare, myth-like scenes and evocative images (one of the ill omens Nero and Poppaea witness is “a horde of frozen elephants”).

The listener will hear extra-musical sounds through this live recording, mostly in the second half. In the Wien Modern/ZeitRäume Basel production of the opera, to portray the sparkling imperial palace, thousands of clear plastic bottles were strung up as curtains on the stage (the excellent CD booklet has photos of this). As the story descends into greater violence and depravity, these curtains gradually fall, leaving the palace in ruins. Ultimately what the listener hears is the sound of the singers walking through huge piles of worthless detritus, a deft commentary on ancient Rome’s toxic world of power and lust. – Kyle Bartlett