About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to a libretto by Grazio Braccioli, drawing on material from Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem "Orlando Furioso" (1516). It premiered in November 1727 at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice, where Vivaldi was also active as impresario.
Plot
The knight Orlando loves Angelica, who secretly marries the soldier Medoro; when Orlando learns of this on the sorceress Alcina's enchanted island, he descends into madness. In a parallel plot, the warrior Bradamante must free her beloved Ruggiero from Alcina's spell. In the end, a magic torch dispels both Orlando's madness and Alcina's power.
Cultural significance
Orlando's extended mad scene, in which Vivaldi even quotes the old La Folia dance tune in the third act, is considered one of the dramatic high points of his Venetian operatic output. After only moderate success at its premiere, the work was rediscovered only from the 1970s onward and now ranks among Vivaldi's most frequently performed operas.