It would be no surprise if Orlando had contributed to the break with Senesino. The many unusual and innovative features of the opera could have made a singer who had for 25 years enjoyed the fame of the opera stage, steeped in the conventions of opera seria, confused or even insecure. Overall, there were only three full da capo arias provided for him, none in the last act; his only duet with the leading soprano was short and formally somewhat unusual; and he was not allowed to participate in the main ensemble number, the trio at the end of the first act. Although he had in the great "mad scene" at the end of the second act nearly ten minutes with the stage to himself, the music offered him little opportunity for vocal ornamentation. In addition, he may here and elsewhere in the opera have been unsure if he had to play a serious heroic or a subtly comic role, and whether, if the latter was true, he as a singer and an opera performer were being ridiculed.Anthony Hicks: Handel. Orlando. L’Oiseau-Lyre 430 845-2, London 1991, p. 30 ff.
