About the work
Orlando is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel, set to an anonymously adapted libretto derived from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's "L'Orlando, overo La gelosa pazzia" (1711), which in turn drew on Ludovico Ariosto's epic "Orlando furioso". Handel completed the score on 20 November 1732; the opera premiered on 27 January 1733 at the King's Theatre in London, his only new opera of the season.
Plot
The knight Orlando loves Queen Angelica, who has instead fallen for the wounded prince Medoro. When Orlando learns the truth he descends into madness and lays waste to the countryside. The magician Zoroastro finally restores his sanity with a supernatural potion, and Orlando accepts Angelica and Medoro's happiness.
Cultural significance
The Act II mad scene deliberately abandons the da capo form: fractured recitative and arioso, shifting unpredictably in tempo, trace Orlando's collapse and rank among the boldest passages in Baroque opera. Despite this innovation the opera failed to draw audiences, was never revived in Handel's lifetime, and was the last he wrote for the castrato Senesino before his defection to the rival opera company.