Haydn: Orlando Paladino

CML call number: CD/OPERA/Haydn
Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "'Orlando Paladino' has wonderful music for an opera unknown to the great majority, as … a new Deutsche Harmonia Mundi recording from Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien re-emphasizes. … Haydn wrote for the voice as gracefully as anyone. Listen only to Angelica, the heroine of 'Orlando Paladino.' Character and mood are also movingly handled. Medoro, Angelica's beloved, wavers between courage in the face of danger and abject flight in a vivid set piece from Act I. Violence and shock are key ingredients here, and Haydn's orchestral interludes jump out at the listener. … 'Orlando Paladino' is a mixed salad of madness, mayhem and true love. Orlando, a figure taken from Ariosto's mammoth narrative of a century earlier, is mad (literally) for love of Angelica, much to the distress of Angelica and Medoro. Equally mad and violent is Rodomonte, spoiling for a fight with Orlando. … The sorceress Alcina orchestrates a magic cure for Orlando's erotic obsession. … The new recording is from a concert performance in Graz, Austria, last year" (7/30/06).