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Armide (Gluck)

 

 
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Armide (Gluck)
 
 
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Armide is an opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years....
, his fourth for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works. It was first performed in Paris at the Académie Royale
Académie Royale de Musique

Th??tre de l?Acad?mie Royale de Musique was the official theatre of the French theatrical institution known as the Acad?mie Royale de Musique from 1821 until 1873, and was principal venue of the Parisian opera and ballet companies until its destruction by fire in 1873....
 on September 23, 1777.

Gluck set the same libretto Philippe Quinault
Philippe Quinault

Philippe Quinault , France dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris.He was educated by the liberality of Fran?ois Tristan l'Hermite, the author of Marianne....
 had written for Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste de Lully , was French composer of Italian birth, who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He became a French citizenship in 1661....
 in 1686, based on Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso was an Italy poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem ....
's Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered
Jerusalem Delivered

Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian literature Torquato Tasso which tells a largely fictionalized version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to raise the siege of Jerusalem ....
). Gluck seemed at ease in facing French traditions head-on when he composed Armide.






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Encyclopedia


Armide is an opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years....
, his fourth for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works. It was first performed in Paris at the Académie Royale
Académie Royale de Musique

Th??tre de l?Acad?mie Royale de Musique was the official theatre of the French theatrical institution known as the Acad?mie Royale de Musique from 1821 until 1873, and was principal venue of the Parisian opera and ballet companies until its destruction by fire in 1873....
 on September 23, 1777.

Gluck set the same libretto Philippe Quinault
Philippe Quinault

Philippe Quinault , France dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris.He was educated by the liberality of Fran?ois Tristan l'Hermite, the author of Marianne....
 had written for Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste de Lully , was French composer of Italian birth, who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He became a French citizenship in 1661....
 in 1686, based on Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso was an Italy poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem ....
's Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered
Jerusalem Delivered

Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian literature Torquato Tasso which tells a largely fictionalized version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to raise the siege of Jerusalem ....
). Gluck seemed at ease in facing French traditions head-on when he composed Armide. Lully and Quinault were the very founders of serious opera in France and Armide was generally recognized as their masterpiece, so it was a bold move on Gluck's part to write new music to Quinault's words. A similar attempt to write a new opera to the libretto of Thésée
Thésée

Th?s?e is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Ovid's Metamorphoses first performed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 11 January 1675....
 by Jean Joseph de Mondonville in 1765 had ended in disaster, with audiences demanding it be replaced by Lully's original. By utilizing Armide, Gluck challenged the long-standing and apparently inviolable ideals of French practice, and in the process he revealed these values capable of renewal through "modern" compositional sensitivities. Critical response and resultant polemic resulted in one of those grand imbroglios common to French intellectual life. Gluck struck a nerve in French sensitivities, and whereas Armide was not one of his more popular works, it remained a critical touchstone in the French operatic tradition and was warmly praised by Berlioz in his Memoirs. Gluck also set a minor fashion for resetting Lully/Quinault operas: Gluck's rival Piccinni
Piccinni

Piccinni is an Italian surname, and may refer to:...
 followed his example with Roland
Roland (Lully)

Roland is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault first performed at Versailles on January 8, 1685. The story is derived from Ariosto Epic poetry poem Orlando Furioso....
 in 1778 and Atys
Atys (Lully)

Atys is a trag?die en musique in a prelude and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully to a French-language libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Ovid's Fasti#Ovid's Fasti....
 in 1780; in the same year, Philidor
Philidor

Philidor may refer to:* Fran?ois-Andr? Danican Philidor, a chess master after whom the following are named:** Philidor Defense, an opening** Philidor position, an endgame position...
 produced a new Persée
Persée

Pers?e is a trag?die lyrique with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault, first performed in 1682 in Paris....
; and Gossec offered his version of Thésée
Thésée

Th?s?e is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Ovid's Metamorphoses first performed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 11 January 1675....
 in 1782. Gluck himself is said to have been working on an opera based on Roland
Roland (Lully)

Roland is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault first performed at Versailles on January 8, 1685. The story is derived from Ariosto Epic poetry poem Orlando Furioso....
, but he abandoned it when he heard Piccinni had taken on the same libretto.

Roles


RoleVoice typePremiere Cast, September 23, 1777
(Conductor: - )
Armide, a sorceress,
Princess of Damascus
Damascus

Damascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is List of oldest continuously inhabited cities and its current population is estimated at about 4,000,000....
soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
Rosalie Levasseur
Renaud, a Crusadertenor
Tenor

The tenor is a type of male voice type and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C to the A above in choral music, and up to high C in solo work....
Joseph Legros
Joseph Legros

Joseph Legros was a French singer and composer of the 18th century. He is best remembered for his association with the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck....
Phénice, Armide's confidantsoprano or mezzo-soprano 
Sidonie, Armide's confidantsoprano 
Hidraot, a magician,
King of Damascus		baritone
Baritone

Baritone is a type of European classical music male voice type that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice....
 
Hatecontralto
Contralto

In music, a contralto is a type of European classical music female voice type with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice....
 
The Danish Knight, a Crusadertenor 
Ubalde, a Crusaderbaritone 
Aronte, in charge of Armide's
prisoners		baritone 
Artémidore, a Crusadertenor 
A naiad
Naiad

In Greek mythology, the Naiads or Naiades were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks.They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid....
soprano or mezzo-soprano 
Spirits, demons, soldiers, citizens of Damascus, nymph
Nymph

In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of mythological entities in human form. They were typically associated with a particular location or landform....
s, shepherds


Synopsis

For the storyline, see Armide
Armide (Lully)

Armide is an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The libretto was written by Philippe Quinault, based on Torquato Tasso's La Gerusalemme liberata ....
 by Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste de Lully , was French composer of Italian birth, who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He became a French citizenship in 1661....
. Gluck kept the libretto unchanged, although he cut the allegorical prologue and added a few lines of his own devising to the end of Act Three. Similarly, the roles and the disposition of the voices are the same as in Lully's opera.

Selected recordings

  • Armide: Armide (Mireille Delunsch
    Mireille Delunsch

    Mireille Delunsch is an opera soprano. She studied musicology and voice at the conservatory in Strasbourg. Her debut was at the Op?ra du Rhin in Mulhouse, in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov ....
    ), Renaud (Charles Workman
    Charles Workman

    Charles Workman may refer to:*Charles H. Workman, English singer and actor*Charles Workman, hitman who killed Dutch Schultz...
    ), La Haine (Ewa Podles
    Ewa Podles

    Ewa Podles was born April 26, 1952 in Warsaw, Poland. She is a Polish internationally celebrated contralto with a very wide vocal range and great vocal agility....
    ), Hidraot (Laurent Naouri
    Laurent Naouri

    Laurent Naouri is a French bass-baritone. Initially beginning his education at the ?cole Centrale de Lyon, Naouri decided to concentrate on opera in 1986 and continued his musical studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London....
    ); Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski
    Marc Minkowski

    Marc Minkowski is a France Conducting of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque music works. His father was Alexandre Minkowski, professor of pediatrics and one of the founders of neonatology....
     (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv, 1999)


External links

(French)
  • (Italian)