Orlando's Madness

Dear Friends,

This post has nothing directly to do with politics or the Obama Administration.  Indirectly it does in that it reflects the problem with fearing or not liking that which you don't know or with which you are not familiar.

I am almost entirely ignorant about opera.  I have always said that I do not like opera.  I am quite sure that I have never been to more than two or three operas until last night so my dislike had more to do with not knowing than with actual experience.

Last night I went to "Orlando's Madness" an opera by George Frideric Handel first performed in London in 1733.   It was presented by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a wonderful San Francisco based orchestra that is led by Nic McGegan, who has been very closely associated with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.  It was a slightly staged production in a wonderful church in Berkeley before a very enthusiastic and except for me and perhaps a few others a very sophisticated audience. The opera was sung in Italian, but the full libretto was included in the program including an English translation. 

The music and libretto are fantastic.  The plot is very straight forward with just five characters that you see on stage:
Orlando - a warrior conflicted between love and war
Zoroastro - a magician
Dorinda - a shepherdess and the most sympathetic and likable character
Angelica - a princess
Medoro - a young hot soldier

Orlando falls madly in love with Angelica but Angelica falls madly in love with Medoro who returns her love and Dorinda falls madly in love with Medoro.  Orlando goes crazy when he discovers that Angelica and Medoro are lovers.  He destroys Dorinda's house with Medoro in it killing him.  He then kills Angelica.  Fortunately, Zoroastro saves the day with a magic potion that returns Orlando to sanity and somehow is also able to bring Angelica and Medoro back from the dead.  It appears that he may also restore Dorinda's house because at the end after Orlando blesses the relationship between Angelica and Medoro, Dorinda invites everybody back to her house to celebrate.

I was completely enthralled and hung on every word, even though they were in Italian.  The music and singing as written, interpreted and performed told the story in an emotional and exciting way.  I was transported into the story and for over 3 and a half hours, I was in Orlando's completely unreal world.  I now love opera, at least "Orlando's Madness" performed the way it was last night.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal