Agrippina was staged for the first time in late December 1709 - or possibly at the beginning of 1710 - at Venice’s Teatro San Grisostomo and met with enormous success, as testified by twenty-seven following performances, a record number even for 18th-century standards. Agrippina’s triumph sanctioned Handel’s definitive investiture as an operatic composer. After nearly 300 years this opera appears as a masterpiece of 18th-century music and an innovative work, considering that when Handel composed it he was just twenty-four years old. The composer’s melodic creativity and sense of theatre are quite remarkable. The cast, conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire, includes Véronique Gens in the title role. This double DVD, which follows the CD release of this work, will not fail to attract the interest of Baroque opera lovers.

French, English, Italian, German and Spanish subtitles.

“Fisbach's production gives an amusing account, respectful yet inventive, of librettist Vincenzo Grimani's look at the shenanigans of ancient Rome. Agrippina shares three characters with L'incoronazione di Poppea, but at an earlier stage of the story, Poppea here being pursued by Otho, Nero and the emperor Claudius. Agrippina, Claudius's wife, spends the opera scheming to discredit Otho and to get Nero, her son by a previous marriage, designated as the next emperor.The mood is light and ironic, but with a darker side as well. Against a minimalist set, above which French surtitles are, disconcertingly, sometimes visible, the costumes are exaggeratedly 18th-century. Poppea's yards of chiffon conceal two suitors simultaneously in a scene that anticipates L'heure espagnole. Nero, with rouged cheeks, sports an aubergine wig; the wigs of the other characters include various degrees of red, with a striking raspberry shade for Poppea.Otho wears no wig, perhaps to distinguish his genuine emotions from the buffoonery of Nero, Pallas and Narcissus.In the accompanied recitative 'Otton, Otton' and the aria 'Voi che udite il mio lamento', with its aching suspensions in the strings, Thierry Grégoire gives moving expression to Otho's melancholy. As Claudius, Nigel Smith looks comically put out as Poppea fails to notice his preening, but strikes the right lyrical note with 'Vieni o cara'. To decorate the opening of 'Cade il mondo' and leave the da capo penny plain is surely to get things the wrong way round.In the castrato role of Nero, Philippe Jaroussky shows an astonishing agility at soprano pitch. The penultimate aria, 'Come nube', is a tour de force. Ingrid Perruche has a nice lightness of touch for Poppea, as do Bernard Deletré as Pallas and Fabrice Di Falco as a mincing Narcissus.To Véronique Gens fall two of this delightful opera's best numbers: the heartfelt 'Pensieri' and the jaunty 'Ogni vento'. If she doesn't quite plumb the depths of the first, her performance overall is sharp and amusing.” The Gramophone Classical Music Guide