Virginia Opera Presents "Agrippina"

George Frideric Handel's Agrippina will be performed in Virginia for the first time ever when Virginia Opera raises the curtain on its premiere production Jan. 26, featuring a talented and attractive cast in a staging designed to truly capture the spirit of Handel's satirically comedic work.

Titled after Empress Agrippina - the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus, first emperor of Rome; wife of Emperor Claudius, the title character in I, Claudius; sister to the infamously perverse Caligula; and mother of Nero, the emperor who allegedly fiddled while Rome burned - the opera is, according to returning Stage Director Lillian Groag, "a satirical look at a seizure of power, all told in the span of one day and with all the high jinks of a French bedroom farce." This is the fourth Virginia Premiere to be directed by Ms. Groag for the company, following her staging of Elektra in 2001, Die Walküre in 2002, and Tristan & Isolde in 2005. In a review of New York City Opera's 2002 Agrippina production directed by Ms. Groag, The New York Times wrote that she "helped the singers develop well-defined characters, sympathetic even in their scheming."

Returning to Virginia Opera from her home in South Korea to perform the title role is soprano Sujung Kim, a veteran of the Handelian repertoire who starred in Virginia Opera productions of Julius Caesar (1997), Orfeo and Euridice (1999), Rodelinda (2000) and La Traviata (2001). Also returning, following her leading role last year as Susanna in Virginia Opera's highly-acclaimed production of The Marriage of Figaro, is soprano Jane Redding as Poppea - the palace beauty who combats Agrippina's schemes with her own clever ruses after discovering the Empress is using her as a pawn in an effort to seize the throne of Rome for her son, Nero; sung by returning tenor Jeffrey Halili, last seen here as Gastone in La Traviata (2005).
The debuts of countertenors David Walker as Ottone and Jeffrey Mandelbaum as Narciso mark a rare opportunity for Virginia audiences to hear male voices soaring into the soprano range as the pair fills roles that were, in the 1700s, sung by that era's famed castrati - talented male vocalists who were surgically altered in their youth to retain their higher registers later in life.

Also making his company debut as Pallante is bass-baritone Matthew Burns of Richmond, Va. "With two of our favorite leading ladies engaged in a fiery vocal contest of wills, combined with the unique voices of our two countertenors, and set amidst a finely-crafted staging by one of our most detail-oriented directors, Agrippina is bound to be the comedic success of our season," says Virginia Opera Artistic Director Peter Mark, who will conduct all performances.

The production opens at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk on Jan. 26, with additional performances on Jan. 28 and 31, and Feb. 2 and 4. Performances continue at George Mason University's Center for the Arts in Fairfax, Va. on Feb. 9 and 11, followed by the final performances Feb. 16 and 18 at the Landmark Theater in Richmond, Va. -- www.vaopera.org