Agrippina

Going to see Handel’s Agrippina last Friday was such a fun experience! This was only the second opera I have ever seen, the first being the Magic Flute, so it was quite a contrast from what I was expecting. As I’m sure the others who saw the opera will agree, it was a very interesting (and entertaining, I might add) interpretation. At the very start, the scene opens to reveal the setting of a Las Vegas casino. For an opera composed in the early 1700s, before Las Vegas existed, that was certainly quite unexpected. I was also expecting the scene to change, but it stayed on that setting for the entire opera.

Having read the synopsis beforehand and now having seen the opera itself, I wish I could go back and watch it again! I feel the first time around I spent a lot of the time trying to understand the plot (which was difficult, as the opera was in Italian with German subtitles, and unfortunately my German knowledge is not yet at the level of being able to read that quickly), but if I were to have another opportunity to see it, I would love to do more research on Handel’s original intentions when composing the opera and think about what might have inspired the directors of the production to put on this interpretation of it. It makes me think, how much of this comes from Handel himself? What does this show about who he was as a composer, and a person?

This opera is unusually NOT dark with the lack of any character deaths, but it still has a curiously light-hearted tone to it. There is a lot of anger and heartbreak and betrayal in the story, which would lead one to expect the viewer to feel more negative emotions when watching. However, the casino setting and the excessive and potentially unrealistic use of drugs and other not… kid-friendly scenes, I suppose, add a sense of comedy that does not match the usual emotions conveyed in similar stories. Going back to the questions I asked earlier, about what this opera reveals about Handel, we can also view the massive love triangle (or hexagon?) as adding a large comedic effect to the story. Perhaps the director of this specific performance saw the humor in this unrealistic situation and chose to add more elements in the story that would further exemplify the humor.

Having seen the Magic Flute last year and now Agrippina, it makes me want to go see more operas, and explore the different personality traits of various composers revealed by their works. I am also intrigued by something I hadn’t thought much about before, which is how the opera can change just based off the directors’ interpretations. In the future, I’d like to see different performances of the same opera, to compare the level of difference in various performances of the opera, and I want to consider what that reveals about what the composer intended to be portrayed in every performance.