''Armida'' () is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

tic

dramma per musica Dramma per musica (Italian, literally: ''drama for music'', plural: ''drammi per musica'') is a libretto. The term was used by dramatists in Italy and elsewhere between the mid-17th and mid-19th centuries. In modern times the same meaning of ''dra ...

Antonio Salieri Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy ...

in three acts, set to a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Marco Coltellini Marco Coltellini (24 May 1724, in Montepulciano – November 1777, in Saint Petersburg) was an Italian opera tenor, librettist and printer. Biography Coltellini embarked on a career in the Church, but had to leave after fathering four daught ...

. The plot is based on the epic poem ''

Gerusalemme liberata ''Jerusalem Delivered'', also known as ''The Liberation of Jerusalem'' ( it, La Gerusalemme liberata ; ), is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade i ...

'' by

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

and

Traetta Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta (30 March 1727 – 6 April 1779) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic ref ...

, to name but a few, had already composed operas based on the situations that Tasso originally developed. The plot of all of these, and Salieri's work, is based on the relationship between

Armida Armida is the fictional character of a Saracen sorceress, created by the Italian late Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso. Description In Tasso's epic ''Jerusalem Delivered'' ( it, Gerusalemme liberata, link=no), Rinaldo is a fierce and determ ...

and the Crusader Rinaldo. Salieri's opera was first performed at the Vienna

Burgtheater The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater"), originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in Vi ...

on 2 June 1771, and his composition was much influenced by the aesthetics of

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

, who attempted to reform ''

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

'' by tying the drama more closely to the music. Salieri's overture follows the principles set out by Gluck in the preface to '' Alceste''. Other Gluckian influences display themselves in the frequent interplay of soloist and chorus, and the heavy use of chorus overall. Nonetheless, Gluck himself would also go on to produce his own adaptation of the story six years later.

Roles

Recordings

* Armida : Lenneke Ruiten (Armida), Teresa Iervolino (Ismene), Florie Valiquette (Rinaldo), Ashley Riches (Ubaldo)

Les Talens Lyriques The French musical ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was created in 1991 in Paris, France, by the harpsichordist and orchestral conductor Christophe Rousset. This instrumental and vocal formation derives its name from the subtitle of '' Les fêtes d'H� ...

, Chœur de Chambre de Namur,

Christophe Rousset Christophe Rousset (; born 12 April 1961) is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 18 ...

. 22nd Jan 2021 AP244

Aparté Aparté is a French classical music record label founded in 2010 by Nicolas Bartholomée, director of Little Tribeca recording studios. Bartholomée had earlier founded the recording studio Musica Numeris in the late 1980s, and the Ambroisie labe ...

References

* John A. Rice: "Armida", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'' ed L. Macy (accessed 12 May 2007)
grovemusic.com
subscription access. {{Authority control 1771 operas Operas based on works by Torquato Tasso Operas by Antonio Salieri Opera world premieres at the Burgtheater Operas