Carlo Francesco Badini's libretto Le pazzie d'Orlando was set by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi, Nunziato Porta, and Franz Joseph Haydn. These settings include musical borrowing as well as textual borrowing from the original poem by Ariosto. Guglielmi's setting borrows from earlier operas through intertextuality and hypertextuality. By using part of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Guglielmi enters into a tradition of mocking French styles. He also borrows French airs to mock not only French opera, but also other English theaters using these tunes. The parody had to be altered for different audiences on the continent by Nunziato Porta. It retained much of Guglielmi's music, including the Gluck borrowing, but altered Badini's text and incorporated other texts in the libretto. Haydn's setting, based on revisions of Porta, has plot themes similar to the other versions, but is less similar musically. It does not directly borrow musical material from the earlier versions. Mozart's Don Giovanni uses similar methods and reasons for borrowing as Le pazzie d'Orlando.

Works: Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi: Le Pazzie d'Orlando (584-94, 602); Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi/Nunziato Porta: Orlando paladino (592-96); Mozart: Don Giovanni (599-600).

Sources: Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (587-93, 602); François André Danican Philidor: Tom Jones (589-91); Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (600).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Danielle Nelson