Franz Xaver Gerl have been the composer of the aria "Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding", for which Mozart wrote a set of variations for piano, K. 613 (the composer may instead have been another singer-composer in the troupe, Benedikt Schack). Mozart gradually came to participate more in the activities of the Schikaneder troupe, culminating in his opera "The Magic Flute" (1791), with libretto by Schikaneder. Gerl premiered the role of Sarastro, and continued to sing this part in many performances through 1792. He left Schikaneder's troupe in 1793. Gerl may have been a participant in a rehearsal of Mozart's "Requiem" on the
Agrippina (opera) hypocritical; Claudius is pompous, complacent, and something of a buffoon, while Poppaea, the first of Handel's sex kittens, is also a liar and a flirt. The freedmen Pallas and Narcissus are self-serving and salacious. All, however, have some redeeming features, and all have arias that express genuine emotion. The situations in which they find themselves are sometimes comic, but never farcical—like Mozart in the Da Ponte operas, Handel avoids laughing at his characters. In "Agrippina" the "da capo" aria is the musical form used to illustrate character in the context of the opera. The first four arias of the work