Agrippina

The first great popular success of Handel’s career, Agrippina (1709) was the last work written during his productive visit to Italy (1706-10). The fine libretto is set in Rome and is both a satire on the corruption of court life and a light comedy revolving around the Empress Agrippina’s attempts to secure the succession for her son Nero. The music summed up what Handel had learned in Italy; indeed, all but five of 50 vocal movements rework the best music he had written earlier in Rome and Florence. Agrippina herself dominates, always assured (as in her first aria “L’alma mia”, based on one of Handel’s favourite melodies), and at her most formidable in the scene “Pensieri, voi mi tormentate”, when she desperately plans a triple murder. Handel’s later operas offered grander platforms for his dramatic talents, but for sheer zest, and his delight in exploring the opportunities offered by a cast of two-faced characters, Agrippina is undoubtedly Handel’s first operatic masterpiece.