A new staging of the opera L’incoronazione di Poppea, or The Coronation of Poppea, is set to debut this weekend at the Anderson Center’s Chamber Hall. Leading the Binghamton University production are music director Julius Abrahams and stage director David Carl Toulson ’97.

Based loosely on the life of Emperor Nero (referred to as Emperor Nerone in the text), the opera follows the relationship between him and his mistress, Poppea. As Nerone attempts to raise the ambitious Poppea to be his empress, he repudiates the current empress Ottavia. The adulterous couple reigns supreme at the end of the opera, when Poppea is made empress and Ottavia is exiled from Rome.