Released on 27 January 1733 at the King's Theater, London Haymarkert, the composition of Orlando marks Händel's reaction as a businessman after the bankruptcy of the Royal Academy of Music the year 1728, institution for which he had worked for the previous ten years. The reworking of the script, previously written by Carlo Sigismondo Capece starting from Orlando Furioso (1533) by Ludovico Ariosto, confirms a trend already started in previous titles, both in the decision to adopt a text already set to music (by Alessandro Scarlatti en 1711) as in the elimination of secondary characters and the inclusion of fantastic settings, something guaranteed by the choice of the protagonist, charlemagne crusader knight, driven mad by love for his lady Angelica and brought back to mental order by an “enlightened” magician with a philosophical name: Zoroaster, completely invented character who will introduce notes of rationalism in vogue at that point in the 18th century and will exercise, in its magical aspect, how final Deus ex machina.
Date
Orlando
This season, Marc Minkowski expands his collaboration with Les Arts thanks to the visit, one more time, of his orchestra of original instruments Les Musiciens du Louvre. After the unforgettable previous evenings of Mitridate and Alcina, It's time for Händel's Orlando, performed in concert by outstanding and quality voices such as that of the young French mezzo Aude Extrémo, whose opulent dark tone is ideal for the tragic and passionate temperament of the protagonist. The compassionate yet firm Angelica who rejects Orlando's love is entrusted to the soprano Ana Maria Labin, appreciated baroque and mozartian interpreter, Minkowski's regular collaborator. His beloved Medoro is performed by Ukrainian countertenor Yuriy Mynenko, expert on Handel's operas, which he has addressed at the Salzburg Festival or at the Concertgebouw.
