#vivaldi #orlando #opera
Antonio Vivaldi, renowned for his composition of The Four Seasons, was also a prolific composer of opera. Exact figures are disputed – and many have not survived – but it is clear that he wrote dozens of works for the musical stage; Orlando furioso is widely considered to be one of the very best of the Baroque era.
Based on Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem of the same name, Orlando furioso was first performed in Venice at the long-lost Teatro Sant’Angelo in November 1727, under the shorter title of Orlando. Despite its mythical setting, the opera is a fascinating, and in many ways very modern, treatise on the nature of jealousy: the way in which it can govern our feelings as well as how it can be used to manipulate others for our own selfish purposes.
Painting: Ruggiero Rescuing Angelica, 1819, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. (Detail)
