Vivaldi's opera Orlando premiered at the Teatro San Angelo in Venice on November 25, 1727. The libretto was written by Grazio Braccioli, and was based on Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso. The story is neither tragic nor comic, but combines heroic themes with comedy, magic, and the supernatural. There are spectacular scenic effects, plenty of romance, human heartbreak, madness, and redemption. The nature of the demands of the text forced Vivaldi to seek new formal means of expression here. He turned to accompanied recitative and to a lyrical arioso style which often emerges out of a barer texture of simple recitative. Scenes of magic and ceremony provide the most frequent opportunities for the writing of accompanied recitative. Orlando's scenes of madness are particularly diverse formally, with simple recitative, accompanied recitative, arioso, and unaccompanied declamation and singing appearing in different combinations. Unrelated musical ideas juxtaposed against one another often portray the confusion in Orlando's mind. Descriptive writing and changes in tempo, instrumentation, and style portray his violent emotional shifts. The number of arias in this opera is fewer than usual, and their styles and forms are also extremely varied. The instrumentations are innovative, and there is plenty of obbligato writing for different instrumental combinations. ~ Rita Laurance, All Music Guide
