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Organization

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Iestyn Davies

Orlando

Soprano

Erin Morley

Angelica

Rupert Enticknap

Medoro

Carolyn Sampson

Dorinda

Bass

Shen Yang

Zoroastro

Conductor

Harry Bicket

MusikTheater an der Wien

Orchestra

The English Concert

Italian

Vienna

Austria

Theater an der Wien

Orlando Händel

Approved

In his opera Orlando , written for London's King's Theater on Haymarket , George Frideric Handel referred to the story of the lovable knight from Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando furioso (1532). Battle-hardened Orlando goes into a frenzy when his beloved Angelica prefers the warrior Medoro. The magician Zoroastro succeeds in freeing Orlando from his madness of love by pretending to be different illusions and leading him back on the path of reason. Handel did everything he could for this unusual libretto; Orlando is not for nothingas one of his most imaginative scores. The Handel specialist Reinhard Strohm judged the title role, composed for the cast star Francesco Bernardi alias Senesino, to be “the only one who touches all affects, key areas and vocal styles; he has heroic, virtuoso, desperate and even meditative arias to sing ”. Of course there is also a great mad scene that ties in with the English tradition of “mad songs”. Senesino ended his collaboration with Handel with this role: the vain singer had fallen out with the choleric composer so much that just a few weeks after the end of the performance series he defected to the rival company, the so-called Opera of the Nobility.

English

Orlando by Händel, From (2016/2016), Conductor Harry Bicket, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

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