AGRIPPINA

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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Handel was a young 24-year old aspiring opera composer when in 1709 he penned and premiered Agrippina, his sixth stage work, just in for the Carnival Season in Venice. He had thirty-nine operas left to write mostly for his glory days in London as a composer-impresario.

Naxos has just released a double-CD issue of this Handel rarity. It was filmed in 2016 over two performances at the intimate Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with a cast led by Irish mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon in the title role, soprano Danielle de Niese as Poppea, and an ensemble of European singers some of which are associated with the Baroque repertory. The production was staged by Robert Carsen, and the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble was led by Thomas Engelbrock.

It is old news that all of Handel’s operas are built on a set formula that worked wonders for the composer but taxes the endurance of contemporary audiences accustomed to expeditious realism on stage. Handel gives us arias that follow arias only interrupted by recitatives that move forward the action provided one can follow the convoluted plots. It would all make better sense if a copy of the libretto could accompany this CD.

The arias in Agrippina are by and large standard issue Handel, and the occasional choral interludes come off as formulaic. Absent the glorious music of many of his more mature operas, Agrippina leaves the listener longing for more but better Handel.

The singers in this release could help matters were they better interpreters of Baroque music, but sadly and save for the ever-reliable Danielle de Niese, the cast fails to set off any vocal fireworks.

The acting, as directed by Robert Carsen, consists of striking poses and sustaining attitudes for long stretches of time. The director seems to have encouraged his cast to take a ham-fisted approach to a couple of simulated sex scenes that would not rate in the worst of soft porn sites. This reaches the nadir of tackiness early in Act I when the viewer is subjected to two back-to-back squirm-inducing quickies on top of Agrippina’s high tech desk in her oh-so-today office.

Too bad that such a rarity as this opera does not get a better production and cast. Handel certainly deserves better.

Rafael de Acha

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”