Orlando

In the organizer's words:

Orlando is obsessively in love with Angelica and tries with all his might to win her over. This worries the sorcerer Zoroastro, as Orlando is neglecting his duty as a warrior. When Orlando learns that Angelica loves the soldier Medoro instead of him, he goes mad with jealousy, hallucinates a descent into the underworld and decides to destroy everything and everyone. Will Zoroastro achieve his goal and bring Orlando back to the "right path"? In Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando furioso", the "Frenzied Roland" from 1516, George Frideric Handel found suitable material about the labyrinthine paths of the passions, which inspired him to write three operas: After "Orlando" (1733), he returned to the epic for "Ariodante" and "Alcina" (both 1735). Handel was practically in charge of London's Haymarket Theatre at this time and was in the fortunate position of being able to compose operas to his taste. Musically, Handel breaks with the tradition of opera seria here. Da capo arias are replaced by one-part ariosi and accompagnati, which no longer express the mere affect but the unprocessed feelings of the characters. The form of the opera follows the dramatic action and seems to gradually dissolve, culminating in the great mad scene in the finale of the second act. Even though the premiere on January 27, 1733 was a great success, the star castrato Senesino terminated his contract after just ten performances. The role of the title hero was too unconventional, so that he could not sufficiently develop his vocal artistry as the "primo uomo". Nevertheless, "Orlando" continues to captivate audiences to this day with its virtuoso melodies and touching psychograms of the protagonists. The highly acclaimed production by Rafael R. Villalobos, which was first shown at the Perelada Festival in Spain in 2021, provides a cross-reference to Virginia Woolf's novel "Orlando - A Biography" and takes the relationship triangle between the author Woolf, her friend Vita Sackville-West and her lover Violet Trefusis as the starting point for the constellation of characters. Baroque specialist Rubén Dubrovsky is the musical director, returning to the podium of the Gürzenich Orchestra after "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" and "Idomeneo".