Handel’s first opera a tale of power and lust

The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD broadcast of George Frideric Handel’s satirical political comedy “Agrippina” will be shown at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center at 10:55 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 29. A Met premiere by director Sir David McVicar, its total run time is 3 hours 50 minutes with one intermission. It is sung in Italian with English subtitles. Tickets are available at the door for $20 adults/$5 students/$10 college students.

The opera is about “Agrippina,” the real-life wife of Roman emperor Claudio and mother of Nerone (that’s Nero of “fiddled while Rome burned” fame). When “Agrippina” thinks that Claudio has died in a shipwreck (he doesn’t), she uses all her political intrigue to put her son Nerone on the throne — even though Nerone is not Claudio’s son. Complications and hijinks ensue, including a love polygon involving Poppea — Handel’s first operatic sex kitten.

“Agrippina” was Handel’s first successful opera, debuting in Venice in 1709 to immediate popular acclaim. It is a satire about a cast of mostly despicable people grasping for power and being undone by lust — a timeless theme. Director McVicar updates the setting from ancient Rome to modern times. How modern? Besides costumes befitting a contemporary business office, the no-good Nerone is a tatted teenage punk and Emperor Claudio even flashes a few subtle Trump-isms. One scene features a harpsichord “piano bar” — Baroque meets urban hip. New York Classical Review states, “The Met’s modern-dress “Agrippina” stylishly balances comedy and deeper emotions.”

Audiences surely recognize George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) for his famous oratorio “Messiah” (1742), a deeply religious work copiously performed around the world at Christmas and Easter. Before he composed this and other famous pieces, young Handel studied opera in Italy. He met an Italian cardinal and diplomat Vincenzo Grimani who wrote opera libretti in his spare time. Using Grimani’s text, a 24-year-old Handel composed the score for “Agrippina” in three weeks, borrowing plenty of measures from his previous works and even other composers. In turn, when he composed “Messiah” over 30 years later, he borrowed bits of the “Agrippina” score.

“Agrippina” was a hit in the early 1700s, then its popularity faded. Nowadays, Handel’s Baroque-era operas are undergoing a notable revival in large opera houses like the Met, so much bigger than the small Italian opera houses where they debuted in the early 1700s. The question is whether these Baroque operas can “fill the stage” of these large houses. Perhaps in an effort to enlarge the action onstage, Director McVicar uses bold, colorful sets and vivid physical humor complete with “lust-addled buffoonery,” as one critic mentioned.

The superstar American mezzo Joyce DiDonato sings the title role, one that she currently owns. Within the last year, she has sung “Agrippina” at both Covent Garden and at the Met. The Financial Times reports that she was “rapturous in the role.” American bass Matthew Rose sings the pompous Claudio, torn between his job as Emperor and his love for the flirtatious Poppea, sung by soprano Brenda Rae in her Met debut.

Handel’s original “Agrippina” featured male castrati in a few roles. Replacing that thankfully long-gone voice type is either a male countertenor or a female mezzo-soprano. British countertenor Iestyn Davies sings the role of the good-hearted army commander, Ottone. American Kate Lindsay — a beautiful, long-legged mezzo — transforms herself into a defiant teenaged boy for the role of Nerone and pulls it off magnificently. One critic commented that hers was “one of the most effective trouser-role performances in recent memory.”

Music expert Phil G. Goulding ranks George Frideric Handel as no. 9 on his list of the 50 greatest composers. “Messiah” fans certainly think of Handel as the King of Kings, Lord of Lords of oratorio composition, but most music lovers have no idea that he composed over 40 operas — and some of them comedies. A 300-year-old opera set in modern times that satirizes the abuse of power for political gain is a musical surprise not to miss.