About the work
Tragédie lyrique in three acts by Niccolò Piccinni to a libretto by Jean-François Marmontel, reworking Philippe Quinault's text for Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera of the same name (1685) and following Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem 'Orlando furioso'. Piccinni, engaged by the Paris Opéra since 1776 and barely able to speak French at the time, composed the score with Marmontel's help, who translated every word and its correct stress for him; the opera was first performed on 27 January 1778 at the Palais-Royal, home of the Académie royale de musique.
Plot
The knight Roland loves Queen Angélique, who secretly elopes with the common soldier Médor. On discovering her flight, Roland is driven mad with grief until the fairy Logistille cures him and restores him to his duties as a knight.
Cultural significance
Roland was Piccinni's first opera for Paris and became his greatest success there, running to more than twenty performances in its first year and staying in the Opéra's repertoire until 1793. Contemporaries read it as a counter-model to Christoph Willibald Gluck's reform operas, marking the start of the Parisian feud known as the 'Querelle des Gluckistes et des Piccinnistes'.