Orlando

Orlando (HWV 31) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written in for the second Royal Academy of Music. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's L'Orlando after Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which was also the source of Handel's operas Alcina and Ariodante.
The opera was first given at the King's Theatre in London on 27 January 1733. There were 10 performances and it was not revived. The first modern production was at the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon, on 6 May 1959. The United States premiere of the opera was presented by the Handel Society of New York (HSNY) in a concert version on 18 January 1971 at Carnegie Hall. Stephen Simon conducted the performance with Rosalind Elias in the title role, Camilla Williams as Angelica, Betty Allen as Medoro, Carole Bogard as Dorinda, and Justino Díaz as Zoroastro. The HSNY had made the first recording of the opera in 1970 in Vienna with a mostly different cast for RCA Red Seal Records. Peter Sellars directed the first staged production of the work in the United States at the American Repertory Theater on 19 December 1981. Countertenor Jeffrey Gall sand the title role and Craig Smith conducted.