Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 14, 2009



Agrippina (HWV 6) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel, from a libretto by Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani. Composed for the 1709–10 Venice Carnevale season, the opera tells the story of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, as she plots the downfall of the Roman Emperor Claudius and the installation of her son as emperor. Grimani's libretto, considered one of the best that Handel set, is an "anti-heroic satirical comedy", full of topical political allusions. It premiered in Venice at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo on 26 December 1709, and was an immediate success. Observers were full of praise for the quality of the music—much of which, in keeping with the contemporary custom, had been borrowed and adapted from other works. Despite the evident public enthusiasm for the work, Handel did not promote further stagings. There were occasional productions in the years following its premiere but, when Handel's operas fell out of fashion in the mid-18th century, it and his other dramatic works were generally forgotten. In recent years performances of the work have become more common, with innovative stagings at the New York State Theater and the London Coliseum in 2007. Modern critical opinion is that Agrippina is Handel's first operatic masterpiece, full of freshness and musical invention which have made it one of the most popular operas of the continuing Handel revival. (more...)

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