• George Frideric Handel. Dramma per musica in three acts. 1709.
• Libretto by Vincenzo Grimani.
• First performance at the Teatro S Giovanni Grisostomo, Venice, on 26th December 1709.

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CHARACTERS

Claudio (Claudius), Roman Emperor	bass
Agrippina, the Emperor’s wife	soprano
Nerone (Nero), her son	male soprano
Pallante (Pallas), follower & lover of Agrippina	bass
Narciso (Narcissus), follower & lover of Agrippina	male alto
Lesbo (Lesbus), servant of Claudio	bass
Ottone (Otho), appointed heir to Claudio	male alto
Poppea (Poppaea), a courtesan	soprano
Giunone (Juno)	contralto

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In the absence of the Emperor Claudius, presumed dead in Britain, his wife Agrippina seeks to make her son by an earlier marriage, Nero, Emperor, helped by her freedmen Pallas and Narcissus. Claudius, however, has been saved from death by Otho, now proclaimed as his heir on his return to Rome. Matters are complicated by the fact that Claudius, Otho and Nero are all in love with Poppaea, who tries to expose the machinations of the last, and of Agrippina, by arranging that all three suitors should visit her house, each unknown to the other. Claudius seeks to put matters right by keeping Otho as his heir and allowing Nero to have Poppaea, but when this proves unacceptable, he defers to Agrippina, leaving the Empire to Nero and giving Poppaea to Otho. Juno finally blesses their marriage.

Handel’s Agrippina was successfully staged in 1709 in Venice, where he was welcomed with cries of Viva il caro Sassone! (Long live the beloved Saxon!). In his score Handel again used music from earlier works as well as from an opera on a similar subject by Reinhard Keiser, under whom Handel had worked in Hamburg before moving to Italy.