Orlando educator materials

Music by George Frideric Handel

After the war ends, his battle begins.

Trapped inside his war-torn mind in a military hospital during WWII, the pilot Orlando can't tell reality from delusion. As he struggles to trust his own perceptions and journey to a clearer world, his trauma ricochets on the people around him—putting love and honor to the test.

Libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece

Sung in Italian with English supertitles

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Synopsis

A mentally tormented warrior becomes entangled in a love triangle set by an ambiguous agent.

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educator materials

About the opera

Opera vocabulary

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curriculum connections

Cast and Creative

CAST

Orlando	Sasha Cooke
Angelica	Heidi Stober
Dorinda	Christina Gansch ^*
Medoro	David Daniels
Zoroastro	Christian Van Horn

CREATIVE

Conductor	Christopher Moulds ^*
Director	Harry Fehr ^*
Production Designer	Yannis Thavoris
Lighting Designer	Anna Watson
Projection Designer	Andrzej Goulding
Chorus Director	Ian Robertson

* San Francisco Opera debut

A production of Scottish Opera.

Previous performance of Orlando can be found in our Archive.

THE BUZZ

“In this intelligent second-world-war take on Orlando for Scottish Opera, Harry Fehr has created a moving and provocative human drama.”
–The Guardian

Cooke "brings an extraordinary wealth of tonal color to a performance, as well as a degree of emotional intensity.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“To say that David Daniels is the most acclaimed countertenor of the day, perhaps the best ever, is to understate his achievement. He is simply a great singer.”
–The New York Times

Photo (top): Scottish Opera production of Orlando/Richard Campbell.