Orlando furioso (Vivaldi)

• Orlando (mezzo- soprano, or Baritone)
• Angelica (soprano )
• Alcina (mezzo- soprano)
• Bradamante (mezzo- soprano, or alto)
• Medoro (mezzo- soprano, or tenor )
• Ruggiero ( counter-tenor, or baritone)
• Astolfo ( bass)

Orlando furioso RV 728 is an opera ( dramma per musica ) in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi (Music) with a libretto by Grazio Braccioli.

Action

Bradamante and Angelica enter the kingdom of the sorceress Alcina. Orlando is in love with Angelica, but as this in turn loves Medoro, she asks for help Alcina. Alcina promises, with their magic power to bring together the two lovers, and I shall incidentally, work for them Ruggerio, the lovers of Bradamante by a spell as a lover. But Bradamante finally knows how to break the spell Alcina. Orlando's attempts to tackle Alcina's forces beat initially fail: when he learns of the upcoming wedding of Angelica and Medoro he goes mad. In his confusion he destroyed a statue of Merlin the Magician, which he accidentally breaks Alcina's power. He realizes that true love can only be achieved if one renounces the madness of love.

Orchestra

Flute, 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, strings ( violins I and II, violas, cellos, double bass), basso continuo (harpsichord, cello, theorbo )

Stylistic position

Like most operas of Vivaldi 's Orlando furioso time is structured according to a firmly established scheme in which alternating recitatives and da capo arias. The major content development takes place in the recitatives, while it is often the arias are so-called "suitcase arias " which - be taken by the singers to other sites and incorporated into other opera productions - taken out of context could. Vivaldi himself took over ten arias from Orlando in his resulting two years later opera L' Atenaide. However, the musical numbers, all pose higher demands on all singers, especially in terms of coloratura culture so that have become possible again by the emergence of a new, trained at the historical performance practice, generation of singers, adequate performances only recently.

The score of the Orlando furioso is not quite complete survived. It does not contain Sinfonia ( Overture ), since it was still common at this time to transfer them from other works. It also lacks the aria Ruggiero Come l' onda con voragine orrenda from the third act, but that it had set to music in Vivaldi 's opera Ottone in villa, so that with regular performances of the alternative setting is inserted. Need to be the surviving parts are, however, get completely instrumented, so that adds no votes.

History

Orlando furioso is Vivaldi's second own artistic engagement with Ariosto's epic poem. 1713 opera Orlando furioso by Giovanni Alberto Ristori was premiered to a libretto by Grazio Braccioli the Teatro Sant'Angelo. The following year, after Vivaldi had become director of the theater Sant'Angelo, he had with Orlando finto pazzo (, The putative Orlando Furioso ') brought (RV 727 ) itself a continuation of Ristoris opera to the stage and therefore suffered a major failure. In the following years he worked on his work multiple new without being able to increase the success significantly. Later he had Ristoris Orlando furioso partially re-edited (RV Annex 84); this version should have been listed in 1724 in Prague and 1725 in Wroclaw. 1727 Vivaldi ventured a fresh start and set to music the Orlando furioso completely new. This was based on the libretto again Bracciolis from 1714, which had Vivaldi himself but apparently revised so thoroughly that was not even mentioned in the premiere of the name of the librettist. The singer - performers of the premiere in November 1727 consisted of Lucia Lancetti (Orlando ), Benedetta Serosina (Angelica ), Anna Girò ( Alcina ), Maria Catterina Negri ( Bradamante ), Casimiro Pignotti ( Medoro ), Giovanni Andrea Tassi ( Ruggiero ) and Gaetano Pinetti ( Astolfo ).

1732, the Orlando Opera by Georg Friedrich Händel was listed in London who may have borrowed parts of Vivaldi's opera.

Vivaldi's Orlando furioso experienced from the 1970s, a rediscovery and is today counted among his most important operas.

Recordings / records

• Marilyn Horne, Victoria de los Ángeles, Lucia Valentini Terrani, Carmen Gonzales, Sesto Bruscantini, Nicola Zaccaria; I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone; Erato (1978); released on DVD.
• Marie -Nicole Lemieux, Jennifer Larmore, Veronica Cangemi, Ann Hallenberg, Philippe Jaroussky, Lorenzo Regazzo; Ensemble Matheus; Jean -Christophe Spinosi; Naïve OP30393 (2004)
• Anne Desler, Nicki Kennedy, Mariana De Liso, Luca Dordolo; Coro da Camera Italiano; Modo Antiquo, Federico Maria Sardelli. CPO (2008)