Der Gesang der Zauberinsel – oder: Wie der rasende Roland wieder zu Verstand kam

Libretto by the composer based on Ludovico Ariosto's 'Orlando furioso' (G)

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In Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso [Raging Roland], the sorceress Alcina lives on an island and transforms all travelers into animals and plants as soon as she has become tired of them. The composer Roland Angeler has resolved to write a new opera based on this famous tale – but nothing works out as it should. Fortunately, Roland’s daughter Angelica assists him, while he flies into a rage again and again during the preparations for the opera and nearly goes insane. The young Mirza, who stems from a distant land, is to sing in the opera. When he finds a mysterious music manuscript, a beguiling song carries him away – away into the realm of the magic island where Alcina rules.
Other fanciful figures turn up: the intrepid knightess Bradamante and her riding animal, a hippogryph, which is half eagle and half horse. With the aid of Bradamante and the hippogryph, Angelica flys to the magic island to free Mirza from Alcina’s clutches, and also to recover her father’s senses ...