Alla rosa rugiadosa (Orlando finto pazzo)

Vivaldi wrote Orlando finto pazzo, RV 727, for the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice in the autumn of 1714, the first season in which he took charge of the house's repertoire. Grazio Braccioli's libretto draws on Ariosto's Orlando furioso, freely — the madness of the title is feigned, part of a plot of disguise and enchantment. Audiences did not take to it; the run lasted only a handful of dates, and by 1 December it had been replaced by a reworking of an earlier Orlando setting. The score survives complete in Turin and has been recorded and staged since the 1990s.