George Frideric Handel, Orlando (1733)

I feel like I lose all perspective when it comes to Handel operas. I subjectively feel that I like some more than others, but that may be more a function of my mood and other external factors when I'm watching them than on the operas themselves. Which one is best? Well, at this exact moment, I feel it may be this one, which fucking owns bones. But I may feel differently after seeing the next one!

More interesting to talk about is the story. As much as it's true that almost every opera is based on Orlando Furioso, it's also true that Handal actually only wrote three such (this along with Alcinaand Ariodante; this was the first, but they were all written in a three-year period--was Ariosto-mania sweeping the nation at the time?). And this one is by far the least faithful to the original text. Okay, you think, it's probably gonna be an Orlando/Angelica/Medoro thing, and indeed it is--but of the five singing roles, the other two are made up out of whole cloth: you have Zoroastro, a sorcerer looking after things and fixing problems (they could've just used Malagigi, an actual good sorcerer in Ariosto); and Dorinda, a shepherdess with whom Medoro was involved before Angelica, and in whom he's still ambiguously interested--there's some mention of shepherds in the part of the poem where Medoro and Angelica get together, but no named characters, and nothing like this. Also--this is a small thing and I have no idea why it's here or what to make of it--we are told that Angelica and Medoro are cousins. Why?

Regardless: love it. Love it love it love it. We've got this production here, which is a bit weird, as productions of baroque operas tend to be, but pretty good. It take place in a somewhat abstract modernday setting. Zoroastro is a scientist in a lab coat, drawing diagrams about Orlando's mental state on a chalkboard (including both "Orlando Furioso" and "Orlando Innamorato," a fun callback to the poem of which Ariosto's is a continuation). I was at first slightly disappointed that there were no countertenors--Konstantin Wolff as Zoroastro, in the opera's baritone role, is the only male singer--but I got used to it quite fast (and it shows how much tastes change--can you imagine a post-baroque opera with no tenors?  Is there such a thing?  I mean, okay Puccini's Suor Angelica, but one that has male singers at all?). I especially liked Christina Clark as Dorinda. She's African American, which is great; there need to be more black singers, but unfortunately, there's next to no information about her available online. The one thing in this production I wasn't a big fan of was the decision to make Medoro kind of handsy with her--making him seem like more of a creep than the libretto necessarily mandated. C'mon.

Still and all, GREAT. I think Handel's pretty definitively my favorite composer at this point. GIVE ME MORE.