Welsh National Opera

Messiah, the Water Music, the Music for the Royal Fireworks, these are the works for which Handel is best known today. But he remains one of the giants of opera.

Very few composers possess his understanding of the human condition. Full of ravishing music and poignant drama, Orlando is one of his greatest operas. It is also the perfect place to begin a love affair with his operas.

In Orlando Handel explores the destructive side of love as our hero is pushed over the edge by his feelings for Angelica. The moment of his madness takes place at the end of Act II. Orlando thinks he is in the underworld. The scene encapsulates how skilfully Handel conveys human suffering throughout the opera. His brilliant writing for the scene combines quiet torment and fevered anguish to sublime effect. It is preceded by Angelica’s aria which is among the loveliest and most touching music Handel ever wrote. Handel’s opera reaches into our souls.

Harry Fehr’s acclaimed staging stylishly updates this tale of inner turmoil to the outset of the Second World War.

WNO have assembled a world-class cast of Handel performers for this production. The cast, conducted by acclaimed Baroque interpreter Rinaldo Alessandrini, includes international counter-tenor Lawrence Zazzo in the title role. Rebecca Evans, one of the Country’s greatest ever singers, and a great Handelian, sings the role of Angelica.