Orlando

Orlando, written based on the libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece for L'Orlando, overo, La gelosa pazzia by Domenico Scarlatti (1717), which is in turn based on Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1532), is the first of three operas by the English composer of German origin based on the epic poem, and was composed for the Royal Academy of Music in 1733. This year, Rafael R. Villalobos has been commissioned to create a new opera production, and he will return to Peralada to direct another Handelesque work. In honour of the occasion, the festival brings together a cast of acclaimed voices, including countertenor Xavier Sabata (Orlando), soprano Sabina Puértolas (Angelica), baritone Jose Antonio López (Zoroastro), Marie Lys (Dorinda) and Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Medoro). They will be accompanied by the Baroque music ensemble Vespres d’Arnadí, conducted by Dani Espasa from the harpsichord. The

young, accomplished regista from Seville focuses the plot on the love triangle between Angelica, Medoro and Dorinda, three characters usually played by women. Drawing links to Orlando: A Biography (1928) by Virginia Woolf, and The Hours, Michael Cunningham's 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning novel that was brought to the big screen by Stephen Daldry, Villalobos delves into Orlando as “an intimate array of characters, especially the trio of female protagonists, who are under the constant shadow of the hero onto whom they project their own desires”. This bright, musical performance plays with literary and cinematic references, and aims to capture the essence of the world created by the Bloomsbury Group and their influence on contemporary