Armide is an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The libretto was written by Philippe Quinault, based on Torquato Tasso's La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered).
Critics in the 18th century regarded Armide as Lully's masterpiece. Unlike most of his operas, Armide concentrates on the sustained psychological development of a character — not Renaud, whose supposed heroic conflict between love and duty disappears the moment his enchantment is broken...
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Armide is an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The libretto was written by Philippe Quinault, based on Torquato Tasso's La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered).
Critics in the 18th century regarded Armide as Lully's masterpiece. Unlike most of his operas, Armide concentrates on the sustained psychological development of a character — not Renaud, whose supposed heroic conflict between love and duty disappears the moment his enchantment is broken — but Armide, who repeatedly tries without success to choose vengeance over love and ultimately achieves neither.
The work is in the form of a tragédie en musique, a genre invented by Lully and Quinault.
Lully's Armide was first performed in Paris at the Paris Opera on February 15, 1686.
Allegorical Prologue:
Main Plot:
Set during the First Crusade, this is the love story of the sorceress Armide and the Christian knight Renaud. At war with the Christian Crusaders, Armide ensnares her enemy Renaud with her magic spells, but at the moment she...
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