Agrippina

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Ancient Rome as material for an opera – what could that possibly be about? A rather inane emperor who returns victorious from a military campaign aiming to relax in the company of the beautiful Poppea, a general who truly loves her, a dubious emperor-to-be who is also chasing her, and two overtaxed courtiers with few moral scruples. All these characters are caught up in the web of the unscrupulous empress, who with flattery, pretence and lies aims to secure the throne for her son. In the scathing but comic intrigue with its rapid twists and turns, neither men nor women are shown in their best light. The only honest character, the general Ottone, to whom love is more important than power, gets caught in the middle. For Handel, Agrippina, which he wrote shortly before leaving Italy, was his first great operatic success. This sharp political satire with its musical ingenuity is as convincing as ever even today: in it, Handel transforms numerous hits written in Italy into an irresistible operatic experience.

A Halle Opera production as part of the Handel Festival