Handel’s ‘Agrippina’ made stylishly comic

BLO often imports productions from other houses, as it did with the Welsh National Opera’s “Ariadne,’’ but this was more an instance of a familiar staging being brought to a new home. The current artistic regime at BLO all have strong ties to Glimmerglass Opera and by extension New York City Opera, two companies that sparked a surge of interest in Handel’s operas over the last decade. This particular production, directed by Lillian Groag, premiered at Glimmerglass in 2001 when Esther Nelson (now running BLO) served as its general director. The set — large rotating facades suggesting a modern riff on the architecture of ancient Rome — was designed by John Conklin, who now serves as BLO’s artistic adviser.

The facades (with one scenery malfunction notwithstanding) frame a visually stylish staging whose driving feature is the comedy that Groag wrings out of every available line of Vincenzo Grimani’s libretto. There are plenty of genuinely comic touches in this tale of Agrippina’s endless scheming to install her son, Nerone, as the Emperor Claudio’s successor. Groag acknowledges the libretto’s satire but chooses to ratchet up the silliness, keeping her singers busy (at times over-busy) drawing laughs throughout many of their arias. Fortunately, she plays it straight at key moments, such as the moving “Voi che udite il mio lamento,’’ the Act 2 lament sung by Ottone, the opera’s sole character with purely noble intentions. (He is deeply in love with Poppea, who cruelly spurns him after being deceived by Agrippina.)