Orlando

“Never in my whole life have I heard better music,” commented one audience member following the first performance of George Frideric Handel’s Orlando. The story of the knight whose love for Princess Angelica causes him to lose his mind has its origins in the epic poem Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariost. But it is Handel’s music that turns the medieval tale into a drama of human passions that examines the question of the relationship between rationality, feelings and passion in a person. Far removed from the conventions of Baroque opera, Orlando, Princess Angelica and her lover Medoro go through a drama of self-discovery that reaches its climax in the scene depicting Orlando’s madness, which is also remarkable for its music. Singer and conductor Raffaele Pe brings a concert version of this drama to the MusikTheater an der Wien with his ensemble La Lira di Orfeo and sings the title role himself.

Concert performance in Italian with German surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up

(Source: www.theater-wien.at)