The other scene I’ve selected to examine is Agrippina’s aria “Non ho cor che per amarti,” which she sings to Poppea. Agrippina’s schemes are now far advanced, and for present purposes it is only necessary to know that it is very important to her that Poppea believe she is her friend, and will follow her advice. They are in Poppea’s bedroom. Agrippina sings that her heart’s only desire is to be Poppea’s friend forever; that with purest intent she presses her to her breast; and that no deception or misunderstanding must ever come between them. And here’s a prime example of the director’s dilemma in these operas. No activity is prescribed in the score, no staging indicated, and that is the general rule. (The marking “At the mirror” for Poppea’s first aria, minimal as it is, is a rare exception.) So if it’s desired that the aria play as a scene, the behavior will have to be made up, and as you can see, the text’s expression of a couple of sentiments is not much to go on.

The aria’s tempo (not indicated) isn’t fast; I’d call it an andante moderato in the versions I’ve heard, which sound about right. The intro consists of an angular staccato opening, then an undulating violin figure that is capped with a brief tutti, followed by an oboe repetition of the violin figure, finished with the same tutti. Seventeen ambling bars to fill—with what? Then comes the first verse of the aria, interspersed with the oboe version of the waggly figure and other little orchestral responses; then the vocal line joins with the oboe to elaborate a bit, and there’s another finishing-off. Then the violins take up again, at some length, followed by the B section. And then the  whole da capo. Five minutes, twenty-one seconds in all (the Naxos timings), about half of it instrumental only, and no clue about what to do. And this isn’t a monologue. One of the opera’s important relationships is under development here. Let’s leave in the realm of dreamy wishfulness the thought that the singers might work out something interesting on their own. In our production system, the director, is at the least, responsible for the framework.

In this case, Hampe first: He finds his theme in the preceding recitative, when Agrippina tells Poppea that it is now important that they put on a good front at the Triumph Claudio is about to receive. So the aria will be about making sure that Poppea, lusted after by every male principal, looks great. Agrippina conducts an up-close boudoir inspection as Poppea completes her couture for the occasion, primping her, running a finger delicately along her neckline, placing the tiara, etc. Twice, she is on the verge of kissing Poppea on the mouth, but finally settles for the kiss-kiss on the cheek. Daniels does all this with contained suggestiveness; Janice Hall (Poppea) soaks it in, betraying nothing to Agrippina or to us but, as we say, processing. There are myriad strands of high-stakes subtext here (consult the plot), but both women stay right on course, Daniels deploying her arts in pursuit of her goal, Hall playing along while decoding. They are both splendid; the scene is full of sensual tension while accomplishing a dramatically  logical action and neatly setting up Poppea’s act-ending aria.