By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 29 August 2011]
Any performance of Orlando Paladino is a bit like an archaeological dig: it offers clues to Haydn’s personality and late-18th-century lifestyle, while leaving a lot to our imagination. It tells us, for example, what artists he had at his disposal at Esterh·za, the aristocratic Elysium where he spent the most productive years of his life – a coloratura soprano with a formidable personality (the sorceress Alcina), a dramatic soprano with a brilliant top (the lovelorn heroine Angelica), a soubrette and baritone who were good at comedy (Erilla and Pasquale).