Les Arts presents Handel's Orlando, with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre in a concert version

Les Arts presents Handel's Orlando , with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre in a concert version

• Minkowski, the quintessential Handel conductor, culminates an intense month at Les Arts after the resounding success of the performances of Giulio Cesare in Egitto
• The French director has assembled a cast of Handel specialists for this one-off performance in the Main Hall of Les Arts on March 22.

Valencia (8.3.26). The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía concludes its program dedicated to Baroque opera with the concert version of Orlando by Handel, this time with Les Musiciens du Louvre under the musical direction of Marc Minkowski on Sunday, March 22, in the Main Hall.

The French maestro, the quintessential Handelian conductor, with his acclaimed orchestra, caps off a month in which he is the absolute protagonist of the Les Arts program with five performances of Giulio Cesare in Egitto at the head of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, for which he receives acclaim from the public and critics every night.

Orlando, the first Baroque opera ever performed at Les Arts, returns almost 20 years later with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. The prestigious French ensemble, founded by Minkowski himself in 1982, is particularly renowned for the excellence of its interpretations of the Handel repertoire, one of its great specialties within early music.

Its musical richness and psychological depth place Orlando among Handel's most fascinating works. A prelude to his celebrated triptych on Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso (1532) (with Ariodante and Alcina ), the opera explores the adventures of the knight Orlando and the madness that engulfs him due to his unrequited love for Angelica, Queen of Cathay.

Revolutionary for its bold musical language and dramatic approach, the German composer broke with the conventions of the time with the demanding and breathtaking scene of the hero's madness, which, to this day, continues to surprise with its modernity.

Marc Minkowski presents a cast of renowned specialists in this repertoire, headed by mezzo-soprano Aude Extrémo (Orlando), endowed with a prodigious dramatic intensity and a dark timbre, ideal for the complex leading role.

Soprano Ana Maria Labin, a renowned Mozart and Baroque interpreter, embodies the beautiful and elusive Angelica, whose rejection drives Orlando to madness. The role of her beloved Medoro is sung by Ukrainian countertenor Yuriy Mynenko, who, despite his youth, has already garnered acclaim for his Handel performances at venues such as the Salzburg Festival, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Paris Opera.

German coloratura soprano Alina Wunderlin, as the sensitive and dreamy shepherdess Dorinda, also in love with Medoro, and British bass-baritone Edward Jowle, in the role of the wise and enigmatic Zoroaster, complete the cast.

Tickets for Orlando can be purchased through the theater's various sales channels: box offices, the sales line 96 197 59 00 and the Les Arts website.