L’Incoronazione di Poppea 2022 Reviews

★★★★★
BRITISH THEATRE
Tim Hochstrasser
​
The first opera to open this year’s Grimeborn Festival is also one of the first written, or at least to survive in recoverable form. Monteverdi’s earliest surviving opera, ‘Orfeo’ dates from 1607 when he was working at the court of Mantua, whereas this work is the culmination of his commitment to Venice, a city whose myth of origins is crucial to understanding the context of this work.
Often seen as a work that reverses the usual moral polarities by elevating vice and demonstrating the defeat of virtue, this opera is in fact part of a larger plan, the final part of three operas exploring political fortunes in the Greco-Roman world to which Venice is the natural successor. The elevated level of debate in the tightly drawn, sophisticated libretto reveals insights into politics and the clash with personal morality that is rarely found in the history of opera until Verdi’s Don Carlos.

The opera opens with a prologue in which a duel is set up between the goddesses of Virtue, Fortune and Love from which Love will clearly emerge the victor. The main plot, very loosely based on historical events, involves the emperor Nero’s attempt to elevate his mistress Poppea to replace his wife Ottavia. This is opposed by his old tutor, Seneca, and by Ottavia herself, who persuades Poppea’s former lover, Othone, to attempt her assassination. All these efforts fail and by the end the two lovers unite in a meltingly beautiful duet, ‘Pur ti miro’ to celebrate their union.
Or not….
For one of the great strengths of this subtle and thoughtful production is that it takes nothing at face value and explores many layers of ambiguity in the work. Not only is there a plot twist at the end but this is anticipated my many suggestions at earlier points that all allegiances and identities, whether political or personal or sexual, are provisional and open to change. Rightly the total absence of any certainties is the most disturbing lesson of all, above and beyond any defiance of moral conventions.
Huge credit belongs to Marcio da Silva who provides the unifying vision for the evening in his multiple roles as stage, lighting and musical director (quite apart from playing a variety of instruments in the orchestra as well). The setting he has devised is as elegantly simple as the set for a play by Racine – a bed with a throw, a chair and a couple of flanking screens which are progressively daubed with strokes of red paint as the body count rises.

The music covers a cornucopia of styles and moods: Ensemble OrQuesta are more than equal to the challenge. The eight-strong band overcame some brief tuning issues to provide a sharply articulated account of the score, full of lively, distinctive instrumental textures and ready to take the initiative from the singers in the often-elaborate interludes and postludes. The singing was uniformly characterful and paired with admirably credible acting which made full use of the various levels in the main Arcola performance space.
In the lead roles Helen May as Poppea and Julia Portela Piñón as Nero combined artfully seductive ruthlessness and vocal bravura. They were well complimented by the grave, measured reflective tones of Gheorghe Palcu as Seneca and Hazel Neighbour as the neglected Octavia. Eric Schlossberg conveyed the dilemma faced by Othone with a neurotic intensity.

Tim Hochstrasser, britishtheatre.com, 11/08/22

★★★★
THE OBSERVER
Fiona Maddocks
'Grimeborn gets off to a smouldering start.'

When a stage director, music director, lighting designer, recorder player, guitarist, organist and percussionist are all one person, you begin to regret your own misspent youth. These talents are combined in the figure of Marcio da Silva, the Brazilian founder of Ensemble OrQuesta, a group of young artists who perform baroque opera. His drive and focus informed the group’s powerful staging of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, the opening event in that annual box of pleasures, Grimeborn opera festival. In the confined space of the Arcola theatre, the direction, wisely, is kept simple and formal. Props are a plinth-like bed, a chair and a chalkboard to notch up deaths in ancient Rome. Sightlines may prevent you from seeing all the action, or the tireless and eloquent musicians (seven, including de Silva). No matter. All 10 singers impressed, the cast led superbly by Helen May (Poppea) and Julia Portela Piñón (Nerone).

The plot of Poppea may be morally scrambled but the meaning is transparent. Love, distorted by egotism, curdles into humanity’s most destructive force. Monteverdi’s music, conversely, ebbs and flows, in generous, pulsating waves, culminating in the ecstatic Pur ti miro, Pur ti godo. I’m obliged to say, before someone writes in, that the authorship of this duet is disputed. The only response is to rejoice that it exists. The capacity audience, attentive despite heat and hard seats, cheered.

Fiona Maddocks (The Observer) - The Guardian: The week in classical. 30.07.22

★★★★★
PLAYS TO SEE
Owen Davies

Monteverdi was a venerable and celebrated church musician of 75 when he wrote Poppea. It was quite common for church composers to supplement their income by writing secular work for the annual Venice Carnival, but one does wonder what audiences made of the triumph of ‘Love’ (though we might think Lustrather than Love) over ‘Virtue’ that is portrayed in this marvellous opera. It was first performed at the carnival of 1643 and Monteverdi died later that year.

Marcio da Silva’s Ensemble OrQuesta has done Poppea before. Indeed, I reviewed a performance at The Cockpit in February 2019 which impressed me very much – with Helen May as a splendid Nero. In this production, which opens another much-anticipated Grimeborn season at the Arcola, she sings the title role and is even better as the lascivious and ambitious courtesan – her duets with Julia Portela Pinon as Nero are as close to deserving an 18 rating as any opera staging I have seen. The two of them provide a blend of voices that is well matched to the, sometimes complex, music and never better than when they sing the final pur ti miro duet.

The story is of Emperor Nero and his efforts to end his marriage to Ottavia so that he could make Poppea his empress. He is presented with a perfect opportunity when an outraged and vengeful Ottavia approaches Poppea’s former lover, Ottone, and urges him to murder the woman who has rejected him. But the plot is discovered, and the way is clear for Nero to exile Ottavia and marry the seductive courtesan, though in this production there is a startling twist before the final curtain. In the intimate space of the main studio at the Arcola Theatre, the story is presented with the simplest of stagings – a bed-sized platform covered in red cloth, a single chair, and two small screens which are scored with scars of red paint at key moments in the story. One of the many strengths of the Grimeborn approach is that the small space brings every member of the audience close into the drama.

There is so much fine singing that once again I hesitate to pick out individuals, but Hazel Neighbour as Ottavia fills her brief moments in the spotlight with glorious singing and righteous indignation and Kieran White (singing three roles) once again shows what a magical tenor voice and a flair for comedy can bring to the small role of Poppea’s servant Arnalta. There are a number of other Ensemble OrQuesta stalwarts – particularly Poppy Shotts and Anna-Luise Wagner – who shine in small roles and the overwhelming sense is of a group of performers who have bought into da Silva’s approach to baroque opera. His group of musicians playing baroque instruments is similarly accomplished, although early tuning problems in the warm and humid atmosphere on the press night were evident.

As baroque opera has worked its way back into the repertoire – particularly fuelled by a new enthusiasm for Handel – Ensemble OrQuesta’s approach, which offers an accessible and enjoyable way to enjoy the less familiar conventions of early opera, seems to me increasingly valuable. I hope that every seat is filled for the short run of this wonderful production.

Owen Davies, Plays to See, 28.07.22

★★★★½

THE REVIEWS HUB
​Jane Darcy

Marcio da Silva’s production of Monteverdi’s opera L’incoronazione di Poppea is a rich if challenging one. The story itself has been described as one in which virtue is punished and greed rewarded. Certainly, it is Amore, of the work’s three allegorical figures, who bests Virtu and Fortuna, and Monteverdi presents the passionate love of Nerone and his mistress Poppea with seductively gorgeous music. So, does Love Conquer All? And must we turn a blind eye to Nerone’s ruthless treatment of his wife Ottavia and anyone else who stands in his way?

Ensemble OrQuesta’s sizzling production for the Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola strongly brings out the ambivalent undercurrents of the work. Helen May as Poppea and Julia Portela Piñón as Nerone are wonderful as the lovers. Both have exquisite voices and are utterly convincing in their erotic passion. In a production with a running time close to three hours, however, their final scenes could seem to be repetitive. On the other hand, da Silva uses them to suggest Nerone’s dangerous nature. The historical Nero is supposed to have had Poppea murdered and there is a chilling moment of violence here as Nerone aggressively seizes Poppea’s throat during their lovemaking.

Most of the other characters are also in thrall to love or lust. For Ottavia, Nerone’s spurned wife, love has curdled into vicious hatred. Hazel Neighbour in slinky evening dress is clearly a dangerous woman, but so, we suspect, would Poppea be if the tables turned. Similarly, Ottone, who suffers unrequited love for Poppea, contemplates killing her in peevish disappointment. The body language of countertenor Eric Schlossberg in the part is perhaps a little too craven here. His best scene is the one in which turns his affections to the besotted Drusilla (Poppy Shotts). He may sing of faithful love, but he just can’t look her in the face. Drusilla herself adores him, but her love doesn’t stop singing with unnerving triumphalism of the death of Seneca.

The only principled character is Seneca, Nerone’s former tutor. His adherence to reason contrasts with the unlicenced indulgence of the others, his death unleashing the fullest expression of their depravity. Bass baritone Georghe Palcu plays the role of the philosopher contemplating his end with great dignity, his voice particularly suited his aria about the joys of solitude.

Ensemble OrQuesta’s small band of musicians play with terrific verve and energy, shifting effortlessly from the extremes of poignant melancholy to the wildly bacchanalian. Paul Jenkins on recorder is lively throughout and Edmund Taylor’s zestful violin playing is mesmerising. It is only a shame that the band is tucked away in a corner of this tiny theatre so not all the instrumentalists are visible to the audience.

Key to the power of this production is da Silva’s imaginative vision and his dynamism as director and conductor. He has mined the work for its darker subtext, boldly presenting its homoerotic possibilities in the duet between Nerone and Lucano. Similarly, he draws out the potential comedy of the elderly servant Arnalta – both roles captivatingly performed by Kieran White – bringing a welcome lightening to a long work of almost unbearable intensity.

Jane Darcy, The Reviews Hub, 27/07/22

★★★★
THE SPY IN THE STALLS
Dominica Plummer
'The energy of the musicians is a delight to watch'

Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea is, most critics would agree, one of the greatest of baroque operas. It’s always a pleasure, therefore, to see young artists take on such a challenging work. Ensemble OrQuesta’s production, part of the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Opera Festival, fits the bill. This company doesn’t hesitate to update Monteverdi’s morally problematic tale of the Roman Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea in a variety of intriguing ways. Fortunately for more old school music lovers, however, director Marcio da Silva chooses a small orchestra of period musical instruments. He demonstrates a contemporary sensibility in the casting and singing of the roles instead. And audiences who come for the sublime sound of L’Incoronazione di Poppea won’t be disappointed.

Monteverdi and his collaborators created the libretto of L’Incoronazione di Poppea with moral ambiguity in mind. None of the main characters, all based on historical figures, are very sympathetic, with the exception, perhaps, of the philosopher Seneca. The historical Emperor Nero was a monster. His scheming mistress Poppea, having achieved her ambition of being crowned Empress, was then murdered by her husband, who dispatched during his reign, his mother, his former wife Octavia, and many other inconvenient friends and relations. Monteverdi gets around the problem of unsympathetic protagonists by framing the story as a competition between three goddesses. Fortune, Virtue and Love each claim they have the most power over humans, but Love claims the prize with her example of Nero and Poppea. By presenting the story of Nero and Poppea, Love shows how she conquers all, including a hostile court, a vengeful soon to be ex-wife, and a moralizing moral philosopher. The fact that the two lovers in Love’s example have to wade through the blood of many victims to attain their desire is beside the point. At least in Love’s way of looking at the world. And Monteverdi’s audiences, who adored this work, saw no division between the erotics of politics, and death and desire. Quite the contrary.

Opera was still a relatively young art form when Monteverdi began writing his own. Although many of his operas are now lost to us, those that remain still convert people to passionate fans every year. They are innovative, challenging, and yet very accessible. The trick is to honour the intimacy of the small orchestra while creating a large enough space for powerful voices.

Ensemble OrQuesta’s production mostly succeeds at these contradictory aims, thanks to careful staging by Marcio da Silva. The period instruments of the orchestra never overwhelm the voices, or the studio space, and are cleverly tucked away under a platform that allows the audience to both see as well as hear them. The energy of the musicians is a delight to watch. The staging only falters when there is a crowd scene which cannot be cut, or otherwise abridged. The actual coronation of the Empress Poppea is bound to fall flat under such restrictions, even if the intimate space is perfect for the even more numerous scenes of, well, intimacy.

The modern music director has a lot of flexibility in assigning roles in L’Incoronazione di Poppea. For this production soprano Helen May plays Poppea and mezzo soprano Julia Portela Piñón is Nerone (or Nero.) Countertenors are often selected to sing the role of Nerone, but da Silva assigns his countertenor Eric Schlossberg to the role of Ottone. All three singers are both competent singers and actors—a necessity for an opera staged in an intimate space like the Studio at the Arcola. If May and Piñón do not quite capture the desire in the acting of their love scenes, they more than make up for it in the eroticism of the singing. There are some outstanding voices among the rest of Ensemble OrQuesta, in particular tenor Kieran White who manages three very different roles as Arnalta, Nero’s male lover Lucano, and the messenger Liberto. Also noteworthy is bass baritone Gheorghe Palcu as Seneca—a performance of great gravity and precision. Soprano Hazel Neighbour commands the stage with her Ottavia. It takes both energy and courage to take on L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and the entire company demonstrates convincingly that it has ample supplies of both.

L’Incoronazione di Poppea runs until July 30th, and I encourage you to see it, and to get to as many offerings of the Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre as you can. If you are still a reluctant opera fan, this production, and the festival will convert you.

The Spy in the Stalls, 26/07/22

★★★★
THE STAGE
Inge Kjemtrup
‘Absorbing modern-dress interpretation’
Ensemble OrQuesta’s Grimeborn production is passionate and skilfully directed

In popular imagination, Nero ranks as the worst Roman emperor: decadent, brutal and self-indulgent, playing his fiddle while Rome burned. Recent scholarship takes a more nuanced view (and dispenses with the historically inaccurate fiddle-playing), but the Nero of Monteverdi’s final opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), is as scheming and lustful as the legend would have it.

The Ensemble OrQuesta production (part of the Grimeborn Opera Festival at London’s Arcola Theatre) makes for an absorbing evening of a modern-dress interpretation that highlights the psychological underpinnings of this 1642 opera. The young cast is generally strong vocally and dramatically.

Much credit must be given to the skilful stage direction of Marcio da Silva. The versatile Da Silva is also responsible not only for the evocative design and lighting, but also the musical direction of the small ensemble. He even appears on stage in a small but significant role.

We first encounter Nero – or Nerone, as he is called here – and Poppea, his lover and would-be Empress, writhing in the bed centre stage. They swear mutual devotion and plot how best to eliminate the serving empress Ottavia. As Nerone, the warm-voiced Julia Portela Piñón vividly portrays the lustful ruler with a heart of ice, while Helen May as Poppea reveals the calculating interior behind the seductive facade.

Ambition and lust aren’t exclusive to this Roman power couple, however. The nobleman Ottone (incisively depicted by Eric Schlossberg) both loves and fears Poppea, whose servant Drusilla (the talented Poppy Shotts) rightly regards her mistress as her rival for his affections. The betrayed Ottavia (Hazel Neighbour, radiating fury) is bent on bloody revenge, and even the minor characters, well handled by Rachel Allen and a scene-stealing Kieran White, stir up trouble.

The philosopher Seneca is the only character floating about this turmoil. His warnings to Nerone serve only to hasten his own demise. True to his Stoic philosophy, Seneca calmly takes the news of impending death in a reflective aria – a moment strongly performed by Gheorghe Palcu.

The goddess of love, Amore, vibrantly embodied by Anna-Luise Wagner, presides over this Roman Love Island, nudging the weak mortals as is her wont. In the end, Amore triumphs over her revivals Virtue and Fortune, but at what cost?

Nero was 30 when he died, mourned by some but probably not by what remained of his family (his homicidal rap sheet includes his mother and sister). This production reminds us that megalomania did not end with Nero: as Seneca pleads with him not to ignore the Senate and the people, the similarities between Nero and a modern autocrat are hard to avoid.

Inge Kjemtrup, The Stage, 28/07/22

★★★★
LONDON LIVING LARGE
J.C.

Monteverdi's Baroque gem is a wonderfully fitting way to kick off the fifteenth season of the Grimeborn Opera Festival taking place at various venues from July 26 until September 10, 2022. This year, Grimeborn, which specialises in presenting innovative work at an affordable price, is offering thirteen different productions, and is showcasing the L’Incoronazione di Poppea from Ensemble OrQuesta in the appropriately intimate venue of the Arcola Theatre.

Helen May as Poppea and Julia Portela Piñón as Nerone are strong leads, and the singing of the whole cast is quite sublime. They mesh together to do a fine job of capturing both the spirit of the piece and of the period. We were particularly taken by Poppy Shotts portrayal of the ever-hopeful Drusilla and Gheorghe Palcu's stoic, bordering on pompous, Seneca. Anna-Luise Wagner put in superior performance as Amore, as did Hazel Neighbour as Virtu/Ottavia and Rachel Allen as Fortuna. Eric Schlossberg was a compelling Ottone, and Kieran White was a worthy Lucano. Unfortunately, due to the way the production is lit and staged some of the singers occasionally ended up singing in partial obscurity, and at other points, sections of the audience had the singers' backs to them for long periods. The story of Poppea and Nero's love affair would have been well known to Monteverdi's audience and its apparent triumph at the conclusion of the opera would have been easily read as the vanity of ambition, worldly power, and earthly love. In this production, perhaps because there is a concern that the audience won't know that bit of history, the irony is undermined by a miming of Poppea's death and of Nero's continuing dalliances. For us, it seemed an unnecessary directorial choice. Nevertheless, it's a night of splendid music, and this production is an excellent opening for the always popular festival.

J.C. London Living Large 28/07/22

★★★★
BROADWAY WORLD
Franco Milazzo
'Controversial, mysterious, and highly sensual. What's not to love?'

Claudio Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, revived here by Ensemble OrQuesta as part of the Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn season, is a highly controversial and disputed work of baroque opera which flips the script on contemporary morality. Critics have variously labelled it an "extraordinary glorification of lust and ambition", "famously problematic" and "at best ambiguous and at worst perverted".

Monteverdi is considered one of the fathers of modern opera and this 1643 work was first performed in Venice months before his death and, with more than a fair amount of luck, it has survived to the modern day. In his early days as a composer, stage music was rarely played again once it had been performed and, hence, much of the Monteverdi's initial works were discarded.

At least seven of his operas are considered lost and even the provenance of what remains of L'Incoronazione di Poppea is disputed: the original manuscript disappeared into the mists of time and the two copies that have survived into the present diverge significantly from each other and from the libretto. Neither can be directly connected to the Venice performances and musical historians still disagree on how much of either manuscript copy was written by Monteverdi.

The story centres on the affair between Poppea and Roman Emperor Nerone, and the battle between the deities of Love, Virtue and Fortune to decide the lovers' fate. Nerone plans to marry his new amour but his ex-tutor, the philosopher Seneca, advises his ex-pupil Nerone to remain with the popular Empress Ottavia; meanwhile Poppea's husband Ottone seeks to repair their relationship before giving up and falling into the arms of his neighbour Drusilla.

Seneca's intervention backfires when Nerone orders his execution. Ottavia demands to Ottone that he murder Poppea and end the Emperor's philandering, thus adhering to the morality of the day. In a plot twist, virtue is punished and greed is rewarded: a divine intervention by the goddess Love means that the assassination fails, Ottavia, Ottone and Drusilla are killed and Poppea is left to become the new Empress.

Stage and musical director Marcio da Silva breaks with traditional renderings of this opera in two key ways. In the original text, there are no executions at the end and the three are exiled; da Silva says this is based on "(alleged) historical facts" and is "still true to Monteverdi's original intent". More impactful is the gender switch with Nerone played by Spanish mezzo soprano Julia Portela Pinon, a move which opens up new avenues of interpretation.

Helen May’s Poppea is the central figure here - quite literally as she spends most of the evening lying or moving around a bed in the middle of the floor - but this is very much an ensemble piece with many of the actors taking on multiple roles. Other than the bed, two other major props are two boards which grimly tally the deaths in red paint as the story progresses.

As Seneca, Romanian bass baritone Gheorge Palcu is phenomenal. Whether wasting words on the Emperor or committing himself to his execution against the wishes of his family, Palcu's words seem to come from the very bottom of his soul. US-born countertenor Eric Schlossberg plays the crest-fallen cuckold Ottone to perfection: we buy into not just his despair but his elation of (very) new love with Drusilla. The British-Irish soprano Hazel Neighbour gives a fiery performance as the Empress Ottavia who, even when she sees the writing on the wall, fights hard to retain her position.

Da Silva never knowingly holds back on the sensuality. The Emperor is portrayed as a randy soul who enjoys the fulsome attentions of Poppea as well as court subjects; Nerone celebrates news of Seneca's death with the poet Lucano (an effusive Kieran White) and they don't hold back on the wine, song or sex. In the previous scene, Damigella (played by German soprano Anna-Luise Wagner who also plays Amore, the goddess of Love) gets very handsy with Ottavia's page Valletto. Dimmed mood lighting adds to the crepuscular feel of the events.

With his musical hat on, Da Silva's direction is spot-on in the main. Some scenes, including the climax, could have done with more tonal emphasis to bring out what the libretto hints at. The baroque instrumentation using harpsicord, archlute, baroque guitar and a couple of violins adds depth and resonance in the intimate Arcola space.

Ensemble OrQuesta's L'Incoronazione di Poppea is the longest opera in this year's Grimeborn programme - Monteverdi could easily have chucked some of this work's arias into a Venetian canal without any major damage - but it rarely lags. Whether the gender switch is more of a gimmick than an inspired choice is debatable but, while most theatres are currently packed with escapist fare, this dark and delicious production, redolent with lust and ambition, is a wonderful alternative.

Franco Milazzo, Broadway World. 27/07.22

★★★★
A YOUNG(ISH) PERSPECTIVE
RACHEL WOOD
L’incoronazione is a scalding, compelling spectacle, sure to enrapture both opera veterans and newcomers alike.

Adapted for the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival, Marcio De Silva’s production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea is a dark and sensual delight. Ensemble OrQuesta masterfully breathe new life into this popular, controversial baroque opera, while remaining faithful to its original score and spirit.

Returning for its fifteenth year, Grimeborn is an East-London based opera and musical theatre festival which aims to showcase emerging and experimental talent. The Arcola Theatre’s intimate space makes for a thrillingly up-close and personal operatic experience, with De Silva’s soft red and purple lighting design illuminating the players’ every expression.

L’incoronazione’s action takes place in ancient Rome, where the allegorical figures Virtue (Hazel Neighbour) and Fortune (Rachel Allen) battle over which has the greater influence over humanity. Their enjoyable posturing is interrupted by a gloriously smug and haughty Love (Anna-Luise Wagner), who claims her superiority – before expertly manipulating the passions and whims of our flawed protagonists to prove it. Black canvases at either end of the stage keep score throughout, with characters marking wins with red paint in a highly effective piece of set design.

Subject to Love’s machinations, politically ambitious Poppea, played beautifully by soprano Helen May, catches the eye of the nefarious Emperor Nerone (Nero), portrayed with an impressive performance by mezzo soprano Julia Portela Pinon. Nerone is determined that no obstacle should stand in the way of her becoming empress – be it his vengeful scorned wife Ottavia, (Hazel Neighbour), a philosophising Seneca (Gheorghe Palcu) or Poppea’s mournful ex-lover Ottone (Eric Schlossberg). Morality is turned on its head in this tale, with vain and villainous characters ultimately rewarded, and the most virtuous characters meeting sticky ends.

Despite their questionable motivations, the chemistry between Poppea and Nerone is palpable, professing their love with a blistering eroticism from which it is impossible to look away. Tenor Kieran White has fun with his role as Arnalta, providing comic relief and worldly advice in counselling Poppea to pursue ‘more fruitful sins’. The production harks back to opera’s tradition of gender fluid casting, and De Silva artfully explores the homoerotic possibilities of Monteverdi’s libretto.

The live orchestra, made up of harpsichord, organ, archlute, baroque guitar, recorder, a cello and two violins, forms the heart of the production, their vivacious performances filling the space with truly exquisite music. Greater use could have been made of the mezzanine level sheltering the musicians, however the allegorical figures based on the main stage heightened the opera’s delicious levelling effect of gods walking amongst us, meddling with our affairs and subject to our failings.

Rachel Wood, A Young(ish) Perspective. 28.07.22