ORLANDIANA -- Vivaldiana

Speranza

Vivaldi's "ORLANDO FURIOSO" was written in and for VENEZIA, the eighteenth-century capital of the senses.

This also implies that it is a city full of lies, deceit, plotting, and opportunism, which naturally leads to a city of masks and disguise.

Agendas can change at any moment and harmless parties can develop into dangerous plots.

One of the authors who for the first time articulated this specific culture of the island in the lagoon was GOLDONI, a contemporary of VIVALDI.

As a librettist, GOLDONI detected the deeper mechanisms of this world of the senses, its pitfalls, but also its faces.

GOLDONI had an enormous sense of humour and wit.

For instance, in LA LOCANDIERA, one of his best plays, GOLDONI introduces a character who is not interested in women: "As far as I am concerned there isn't any danger that I'll get into any dispute with anyone about women. I have never loved them, I have never had any use of them."

Although MIRANDOLA, the 'locandiera' or the female innkeeper, has several suitors, she is fascinated by this supposed misogynist and eventually gets him on his knees.

Her motto: "Those who run after me soon bore me. My whole delight is in seeing myself served, desired, and adored. I treat everyone well, but I'll never fall in love with anyone. I like to fame fun of these exaggerated ardent lovers and I want to use all my skill to conquer, strike down, and shake to their depths these cruel and hard hearts which are the enemies of us who are the best thing that beautiful Mother Nature has produced."

Is there any difference between her words and Alcina's in Vivaldi's ORLANDO FURIOSO?