Poppaea Sabina that it is not a drama that promotes the triumph of virtue. Poppaea is portrayed as cynically plotting to become empress of Rome by manipulating the emperor Nero into marrying her, and her machinations include the execution of Seneca the Younger, who opposes her plans, which are successful at the end of the drama. Poppaea is a principal character also in Handel's opera "Agrippina" of 1709, but as a victim, not a perpetrator, of deceit and manipulation. Here the schemer is Agrippina, Nero's mother, intent on promoting her son's claim to the throne. Poppaea, the ingenue, is portrayed as the
Brigand and His Wife in Prayer a brigand and his pregnant wife kneeling in prayer before a roadside shrine. The place of worship takes the form of a simple wooden cross located on a remote road, with vast mountains towering in the background. The couple are both dressed as people of their class and vocation would be. The husband is dressed in a frilled shirt and overcoat, and rests his musket at his shoulder. The wife is dressed in traditional peasant's garb and clutches a rosary in her right hand. They pray for the health and success of each-other, specifically for the success of the husband's