ABSTRACT
Among George Frideric Handel's operas, Orlando stands out for its unconventionality. As Orlando, Senesino was asked to perform in a role that was different, perhaps disappointingly so, from those he had tackled up until that point. Handel's amplification of the comic strand of Orlando's dramatic and literary tradition, however, brought with it a way of expressing madness that goes back to the tradition of commedia dell'arte and the memorable performances of Isabella Andreini in the late sixteenth century. Overall, the role of Orlando in Handel's opera did not fit Senesino's operatic experience, which had developed largely, although not entirely, within the heroic tradition of opera seria and the Italian theatrical milieu. Senesino's operatic career grafted on these experiences and broadened the range of dramatic and musical genres he came into contact with during the college years. Madness sits beyond the ordinary and conventional expressive spectrum, and Handel objectified the extra-ordinary condition of madness with Orlando.
