In Concert: Handel’s Agrippina

Founded and directed since 2011 by Opera Director Gilbert Blin, the BEMF Young Artists Training Program is an integral component of our biennial Festival. With the goal of nurturing talented young artists through training and performance opportunities, six singers and a dancer have been selected to participate in our 2025 Program. In addition to their participation in the Centerpiece Opera, Keiser’s Octavia, they attend intensive lessons and workshops from the BEMF directorial team and guests. As a special feature of their training, the Young Artists will present an abridged concert performance of Handel’s operatic masterpiece, Agrippina, conceived by 2025 Associate Director Jason McStoots and led by 2025 Musical Director Jeffrey Grossman. Created in Venice in 1709, Agrippina was a remarkable success and “Viva il caro Sassone,” alluding to Handel the Saxon, is said to have resounded at almost every pause of the performances! Agrippina offers thematic and musical connections with Keiser’s Octavia, as both operas highlight Nero, and Handel borrowed several musical themes from Keiser’s setting of Octavia for Agrippina.

This FREE performance will be preceded by a Pre-Opera Talk at First Church Boston, one hour prior to the performance: Nero (His Mother, His Wives, His Lovers): Once More With Feeling, presented by Ellen T. Harris, Class of 1949 Professor Emeritus, MIT.