A Vache Baroque production in association with Buxton International Festival

Premiered in 1625 La liberazione di Ruggiero is the first known opera by a female composer – a humorous and witty work with choruses of enchanted plants, monsters, exotic ladies and sea gods, a good and an evil sorceress and a rather easily seduced ‘hero’.

Based on the famous Italian epic poem Orlando Furioso, the heroic Saracen champion Ruggiero is freed from the enchantments of the wicked sorceress Alcina through the power of Melissa, another enchantress, working on behalf of his beloved, the Christian warrior maiden Bradamante, a member of Charlemagne’s army.

With Caccini's father Giulio famously championing a 'spoken' style of sung poetry, it's no surprise that her 'recitativo' word setting has both great craft and dramatic immediacy. These passages flow seamlessly between sparkling choral madrigals and plaintive arias, peppered with virtuosic ornaments for the singers to tackle. Lively dances punctuate the score, played by combinations of the wind, brass, stringed, and continuo instruments of the VB Band.

Libretto by Ferdinando Saracinelli, based on Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso


Sung in Italian, with English side-titles

This event is on general sale from 14 April 2026

Priority dates are:

17 Mar – Directors Circle, Benefactors and Gold Patrons
24 Mar – Patrons
31 Mar– Gold Friends
7 Apr – Friends
14 Apr – Public and Next Gen