Agrippina (opera) - Composition History

Composition History

Handel's earliest opera compositions, in the German style, date from his Hamburg years, 1704–06, under the influence of Johann Mattheson. In 1706 he travelled to Italy where he remained for three years, learning the Italian style of music and developing his compositional skills. Initially he stayed in Florence where he was introduced to Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, and where his first Italian opera was composed and performed. This was Rodrigo (1707, original title Vincer se stesso ê la maggior vittoria), in which the Hamburg and Mattheson influences remained prominent. The opera was not particularly successful, but was part of Handel's process of learning to compose opera in the Italian style and to set Italian words to music.

After Florence, Handel spent time in Rome, where the performance of opera was forbidden by Papal decree, and in Naples. He was able to apply himself to the composition of cantata and oratorio; at that time there was little difference (apart from increasing length) between cantata, oratorio and opera, which are all based on the alternation of secco recitative and aria da capo. Works from this period include Dixit Dominus, and the dramatic cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, written in Naples. While in Rome, Handel had become acquainted with Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, probably through Alessandro Scarlatti. The Cardinal was a distinguished diplomat who wrote libretti in his spare time, and acted as an unofficial theatrical agent for the Italian royal courts. He made Handel his protégé, and gave him his libretto for Agrippina. It has been surmised that Handel took the libretto to Naples where he set it to music. However, according to John Mainwaring, Handel's first biographer, it was written very rapidly after Handel's arrival in Venice in November 1709. This theory is supported by the autograph manuscript's Venetian paper. Grimani arranged to present the opera in Venice, at his family-owned theatre, the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, as part of the 1709–10 Carnevale season. A similar story had been used before, as the subject of Monteverdi's 1642 opera L'incoronazione di Poppea, but Grimani's libretto centred on Agrippina, a character who does not appear in Monteverdi's darker version. This was Handel's second Italian opera, and probably his last composition in Italy.