ORLANDIANA -- Vivaldiana

Speranza

Vivaldi's ORLANDO FURIOSO was just one of the many operas based on Ariosto's epic poem.

Hundreds of ORLANDOS, ALCINAS, GINEVRAS, ARIODANTES, and RUGGEROS were written between 1600 and 1800, and even some in the nineteenth century.

VIVALDI wrote two Orlando operas: "ORLANDO FINTO PAZZO" (1714) was an early precursor of his later opera, and before that, he even was involved in another Orlando project with a composer colleague.

From the very moment ARIOSTO published the first edition of his book, there was music writn for it.

One year after the publication, in 1517, TROMBONCINO wrote a madrigal based on the poem.

The real musical Orlando-hype started a century later, in 1619, when GAGLIANO and PERI, the inventors of 'melodramma' presented "LA SPOSALIZIO DI MEDORO ED ANGELICA", which centres on the betrayed Orlando.

Not much later, in 1626, Caccini write LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGERSO DALL'ISOLA D'ALCINA.

After these first steps , many more composers followed.

Among them were LULLY, whose ORLANDO focusing on Orlando, Medoro and Angelica, conveys a message of faithfulness, as well as PORPORA, SCARLATTI and Handel, who states in his ORLANDO that love cannot come from gratitude or reason alone.