Christopher Ainslie

With her husband apparently drowned at sea, a scheming empress secures the throne for her son from another marriage. But the commander of the army has other ideas, and then the emperor returns, very much alive. The inspired vision of director Walter Sutcliffe and designer Jon Bausor brings to life the humour and egomania of one of opera’s most outrageous leading women. The youthful Handel packed Agrippina with the full range of his astonishing imagination, setting a libretto at once hilarious, moving and clever. Handel’s music is bursting with originality and fun, as well as carefully considered moments of eye-watering beauty.

Set in Venice during the Renaissance, the drama centres on Bassanio, a young nobleman who would like to court the beautiful Portia but doesn‘t have the money to travel to her country estate, so he asks the merchant Antonio for help. Antonio‘s wealth is tied up in maritime trade but he offers to procure the sum Bassanio needs from the Jewish money lender Shylock. Shylock hates Antonio for being so contemptuous in his treatment of Jews, and therefore stipulates that if the debt is not repaid within three months, the penalty will be a pound of Antonio‘s own flesh...