Poppea//Poppea

The marital machinations of the Roman emperor Nero—who divorced his wife Octavia in order to wed Poppea—provide the basis for this 2013 Theaterhaus Stuttgart staging of the titular multimedia piece by choreographer Christian Spuck, currently the artistic director of the Zurich Ballet. The mixture of dance, narration, drama, and visual effects here can't properly be called a ballet—Spuck referred to it simply as a Tanzstück, or “dance piece”—but Poppea//Poppea certainly serves as a showcase for the virtuosity of Gauthier Dance, which is Eric Gauthier's resident 10-member troupe at Stuttgart. One of the dancers introduces the characters—which also include Poppea's lover Otho, his erstwhile lover Drusilla, and Nero's tutor Seneca—while another wields a camera to record close-ups of his comrades that are projected onto a screen at the rear of the stage. Some of the action, such as Seneca's forced suicide, is performed in a water-tank, and the piece includes some female nudity. Overall, Poppea//Poppea might be characterized as almost desperately eclectic: the music ranges from the baroque (Monteverdi and Geminiani) and the romantic (Schumann) to the modern, even pop; the dancing likewise encompasses a variety of styles, from near-classic to cutting-edge contemporary; and the troupe's screams are occasionally added to the narration and patches of dialogue. But instead of feeling arch or unfocused, this is an energetic, intriguing work. Presented in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and PCM stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and PCM stereo on Blu-ray (which also features a 3D option), extras include a short piece by Gauthier. Recommended. (F. Swietek)