The opera was a new setting of a libretto written by Philippe Quinault for Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1685, specially adapted for Piccinni by Jean-François Marmontel and based on Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando).

He had been hired by the Académie royale de musique in 1776, in spite of his ignorance of the French language.

Piccinni still knew no French when he was composing Roland and had to be helped all the way by his librettist Marmontel, who provided a translation of every word along with details on how to accentuate it correctly.

The French preferred short arias, accompanied recitative and plenty of dance movements.

Roland forms part of a late 18th-century vogue for resetting libretti Quinault had written for Lully, the first major French opera composer, almost one hundred years before.