Political power games in Kosky's Agrippina at Covent Garden

By Mark Pullinger, 24 September 2019

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“Mocking, Machiavellian, manipulative, DiDonato’s Agrippina dominates the stage from the start”

Reviewed at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 23 September 2019

Handel, Agrippina

The Royal Opera

Maxim Emelyanychev, Conductor

Barrie Kosky, Director

Rebecca Ringst, Set Designer

Klaus Bruns, Costume Designer

Joyce DiDonato, Agrippina

Franco Fagioli, Nerone

Lucy Crowe, Poppea

Iestyn Davies, Ottone

Gianluca Buratto, Claudio

Andrea Mastroni, Pallante

Eric Jurenas, Narciso

José Coca Loza, Lesbo

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Joachim Klein, Lighting Designer

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Sir Mark Elder celebrates 50 years at Covent Garden by returning to his first opera there in 1976 – Verdi's Rigoletto – in a revival of Oliver Mears' excellent 2021 production.

****1

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***11

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.