Orlando
Opera seria in three acts by Georg Friedrich Händel
Libretto after Carlo Sigismondo Capece
German textversion by Werner Hintze
2 hours 45 minutes
Introduction ... 30 minutes before the beginning of the performance, Foyer
Debut performance 1733 - Premiere on 26 February 2010
That love can drive us crazy, is not just an empty phrase – everybody who took the chance of love, knows that. In this context we don't talk about the practised love with the temporary partner, nor the ordinary pseudo-psychological analysis in relationships but we mean love as fate, which captures us inescapably, for which we have to cross any border.
Knight Orlando has fallen eternally and irrevocably in love with Queen Angelica and because of that has forgotten to pursue his career as hero. Angelica, however, loves Medoro and prefers him to all her top-devotees. She even wants to marry Medoro. The shepherdess Dorinda, on the other hand, is desperate since Medoro has left her for Angelica. After several misunderstandings and confusions, Orlando realises that his love-life is at dead end with no way out. Frantic with jealousy, he wants to take revenge on Angelica. His plan fails and he goes mad, developing an obsession to hound the faithless mistress up to the underworld. Who knows, how this story would end without the help of the magician Zarathustra. Advocating for reason and modest feelings, Zarathustra pursues just one goal from the very beginning: To cure Orlando of his obsessive love, so that he concentrates again on his career as warrior.
Händel's magic opera was first performed in 1733. It is based on Ariost's epic poem »Orlando furioso«, combining stage spectacle with a moral discussion and an enormously colourful, thrilling music, which swirls us through the whole emotional kaleidoscope of love.