In a rather different way this is every bit as good as the ENO XERXES of a decade-and-a-half ago - it deserves to make it to DVD, and I certainly hope it does

I read a theory that Handel was what used to be called a "confirmed" bachelor, i.e. gay, but I don't think there was much evidence to support it. Anyway the old boy seemed to have a sense of humour so I expect he would have liked it.

Jonathan Keates' Handel, the man and his music, pub 1985 considers the possibility of the great man being not as other men, and comments that it can't possibly be the case as he was so sympathetic to the experience of women in his operas.

Hm, that could be used as evidence the other way.

As could the enthusiastic churchgoing

And living most of his adult life far away from his native land

And outdoing prima donnas in hizzy fits

I don't suppose he was, you know, doing anything you couldn't tell your aunt, but compare him with that respectable husband and father, J S Bach, and there's something about him...

(I would not stoop to include the winking smiley.  Too naff.)

I'm going to Agrippina next week.  I'm looking forward to it.

I'll let you know how my innocent ear takes it next week.  Thanks for the tip about sandwiches.  I rarely get that much out of an opera where I know none of the music, but that is not likely to be a problem with Handel.  I have been trying to get to know, if not actually love, Monteverdi's Poppea, so Aggripinna may make an interesting comparison.

I believe it is the only opera, or at least one of few, Handel wrote for Italy.  I wonder if that allowed him or his librettist to be more outrageous that London audiences were likely to appreciate?

Thanks for all this - I'm going tomorrow and was already looking forward to it!

I just LOVED Agrippina!! I especially loved the scene in the 'nightclub', with the unforgettable line, "What do I see? Poppaea drunk among the flowers!", which I am absolutel sure was not in Handel's original libretto!
For anyone who didn't see this....or am I spoiling it for you?
Well, it's set in a 'nightclub', and there is a 'grand piano', which turns out to be a harpsichord! I mean, a harpischordist come on to play it, although in the costume of a night-club pianist, before Poppaea drunkenly goes into her big number...it was WONDERFUL!! Quite rightly, he got a special curtain call at the end!
The Ottone almost reconciled me to the existence of counter-tenors!

The night-club harpsichordist was a marvellous idea, and it resolved the idea of that huge harpsichord obligatto in that aria at the same time :-)   And it was played (in both senses) marvellously, as a seedy club entertainer in a lurex jacket and white ruff shirt, who keeps the cigarette wedged between his lips for the duration of his extended solo, pausing only at cadences to take a puff   Top stuff :-)

Well, thank you everyone, I went on Thursday night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

La Connolly was magnificent, and the Poppea and Nerone fine.

Much of the business was witty and apt (the night club has already been mentioned, and Nerone sniffing a line of coke before launching into the fiendish coloratura,) but there were times when I found the camp rather relentless and could have done with more subtlety.  (Ottone's second entrance number was accompanied by two dancers in military uniform doing a Morecombe and Wise routine.  It was very funny but it would have have been more telling to confine it to the da capo repeat, IMO.  Also Claudius practicing golf swings when - insincerely - assuring Agrippinna of his love was a bit much.)

I was impressed by Reno Troilus as Ottone.  He threw off the coloratura with assurance, and I thought had a lovely tone in the lyrical sections.  His body language was telling - jaunty at first, depressed when let down, and shattered when he emerged from hiding chez Poppea.

Incidentally, I am sure I recognised the music of Agrippina's first aria - where did Handel re-use it?  Juno's final aria in Semele?