Essays

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"In the highly entertaining notes and synopsis that accompany Orlando Paladino, Sabine M. Gruber details the dramatic fine points of its somewhat chaotic libretto by Nunziato Porta." Drew Minter, Opera News/10/2006

 

"When the listener wants more than beautiful singing and playing, he easily gets lost by the jumps in the dramatic storyline. The essay by Sabine M. Gruber in the booklet makes up for the missing link of action, staged drama and visual seduction, by trying to depict vividly the extravagant plot retrieved from the bizarre fairy tales presented in Ariosto's world of fantasy." Sigrid T‘Hooft, The International Opera Foundation Eszterhaza, 08/2006

 

"Es fälllt mir schwer, bei der Beschreibung ernst zu bleiben, aber ich versuche es (...) Das Booklet ist sehr neuartig gestaltet, jedenfalls habe ich das so noch nicht erlebt. Sabine M. Gruber schreibt im Plaudertaschenstil, dennoch gehaltvoll und sachlich korrekt. Das Lesen – auch der parallel zum Libretto verlaufenden Inhaltsangabe – wird niemals langweilig. Die Hintergründe lässt die Autorin im Verborgenen und klärt erst auf, wenn es sein muss. Sehr spannend und wirklich ganz toll gemacht!" Tamino Klassik-Forum, 09/2008

 

"Sabine M. Gruber's conversational essay explains how Haydn's musical portraits show an astute affection for Ariosto's epic poem (the same literary source as the great Orlando operas by Handel and Vivaldi). Although Haydn's Orlando Paladino seems partpantomime, part-fantasy, these characters are never conscious that they are not what they protest to be. Like Ariosto, Haydn lets the audience in on the joke but the characters remain blissfully oblivious to the hypocrisy or naivety of their richly ironic statements to themselves and each other." David Vickers, Gramophone.net, 10/06

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