By David Gordon

Hofstra Opera Theatre, a division of the University’s Music Department, should be commended for their work. Their mission is to present operas written in their original languages with student performers. Even a somewhat uneven production, such as the recent staging of Claudio Monteverdi’s 1642 “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” (The Coronation of Poppea), deserves to have greater significance than it currently does on campus.

The problem with this production, staged by Hofstra Opera Theatre artistic director Isabel Milenski, is that the concepts are at war with one another. The set (designed by Jian Jung) is a construction site with the most modern accoutrements possible: halogen lamps, floodlights and cherry pickers. The costumes (designed by Christina Bullard) are the exact opposite: tunics, togas and Roman soldier garb.

What we have is a fight between the past and the present, but it’s not carried out particularly clearly and doesn’t necessarily fit the plot, essentially a love story between Emperor Nero and Poppea, a minx of a woman who has spurned Ottone, who is still in love with her and decides to try to kill her.

Still, the performers are worth noting, if only for the fact that they’re singing a difficult score in Italian, the original language. The Friday night performance was largely well-sung, especially Matthew Koraus as Ottone, whose voice, out of everyone’s, had the most maturity. He also nails all the comedy in the role, which required him, in the second act, to don a dress and blonde pigtails.

The voices of the ensemble were particularly striking and created a rather lovely sound during the first act finale, when Seneca (a sincere Jared Berry) meets his demise. The reasoning for death was unclear for a variety of reasons; the staging of the sequence, for example, as well as the fact that the English subtitles wre suffering from technical difficulties during the performance.

Singing prettily, Danielle Horta made for a flirtatious, exotic Poppea and the moment in the first act where she was bathed by her nurse (Alison Marchioni) looked like something out of a Beyonce video. Charlie Blueweiss was appropriately pompous as Nero, making his entrance in one scene on, of all things, a Segway.

Those two moments are, strangely, the most successful moments of the production. They illustrate the clearest connection between Milenski’s vision for the show and what was actually on the stage. If only the rest of the production were as clear.

Note: The performance was dedicated to the memory of Hofstra music department professor Avalee Beckman. Beckman was a longtime champion of the Hofstra Opera Theater.