Handel’s early, amoral Agrippina, is a tuneful, fast-paced delight. The story of the scheming Empress’s endless machinations to put her worthless son Nerone on the Roman throne is full of memorable arias and the kind of bed-hopping that wouldn’t be out of place in a French farce. Robert Carsen’s carefully thought out, contemporary take (with the odd judicious cut) may lack the madcap antics of Laurence Dale’s recent Brisbane staging, but Thomas Hengelbrock’s vivacious musical direction – the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble snap, crackle and pop with energy – gives the whole thing an irresistible forward momentum.