Agrippina

As Santa Fe Opera’s own publicity for the following season put it, Agrippina turned out to be the unexpected hit of the festival, with audiences laughing out loud and being moved by an opera they wrongly assumed would be 4 hours of static tedium. This was Francisco’s 6th production of a Handel opera, once again co-created with conductor Harry Bicket and three of Negrin’s favourite collaborators in Handel repertoire: Lisa Saffer, David Walker and Christine Goerke (others not in this production would be David Daniels, Bejun Mehta, John McVeigh, Elisabeth Futral and Palle Knudsen) here joined by Kris Jepson and Christophe Dumaux to form one of those rare true ensembles that bring the piece to a life beyond its individual elements.

• Santa Fe Festival · Santa Fe · August 2004