Agrippina, third wife of the Emperor Claudius, placed her son Nero on the throne after poisoning her husband with mushrooms. Her ungrateful offspring then had her hacked to death after she survived a rigged boating accident. So, not exactly Comedy Tonight from Handel then? Wrong. This 1709 work written for Venice is one of the funniest “parody” operas around.

The plot concerns the scheming matriarch’s attempts to have her son declared Claudius’s successor over the virtuous Ottone. Nerone, however, is focused solely on his passion for Poppea. She, of course, is in love with Ottone while pursued by the randy but foolish Emperor. A sort of Carry On Claudius thus ensues.

A Handel opera from René Jacobs is always an event and this recording is a veritable cracker. Alexandrina Pendatchanska is a knockout as the wicked Empress, sometimes a railing harpy full of vocal fireworks, other times a wheedling manipulator of her doltish husband. Jennifer Rivera has a ball as the petulant Nerone, while Sunhae Im is a charming Poppea. Countertenor Bejun Mehta gives us a beautifully sung Ottone, raising this secondary role to something like the hero of the piece. Marcos Fink does a...