Armide (Gluck)

After victoriously defeating the armies of King Godefroi of Jerusalem using only her magic power, Armide is still not satisfied. She will not be satisfied until one of her enemy's knights, Renaud, is finally defeated. But there is something about Renaud that unsettles this powerful and controlling Princess of Damascus. Armide knows she hates Renaud with every ounce of hatred she can muster, but somewhere inside her the smallest flame of love burns.

Armide captures Renaud while he is asleep, but as she raises the knife to execute him, her hand is stopped. The love she feels overwhelms her, and she cannot bear to harm him. Instead, she steals Renaud away to an enchanted palace on the other side of the world to try and come to terms with how she feels. She knows that she should hate him, so she summons La Haine, hatred herself, to replenish her own capacity for hatred. Even La Haine cannot overcome the love that has filled Armide’s heart, and curses her to be forever controlled by this love.

Two valiant knights brave the monsters and enchantments of Armide’s desert to find the palace and rescue Renaud. They call him back to serve the glory they fight for, and Renaud gratefully accepts. Without her hatred, Armide has no power to stop Renaud leaving. She will remain in her palace, still desperately loving him, until it finally defeats her.

Despite there already being an incredibly successful and popular opera to Phillipe Quinault’s libretto, written by the popular French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, that did not deter German composer, Christoph Willibald Gluck, from producing his own setting of this French text. With its premier 90 years after Lully’s, Gluck’s work was surprisingly successful, and brought this popular story into the newly developed conventions of the operatic world in the 18th century.

• Overture

Act One

Scene 1

• ‘Dans un jour de triomphe’ - Armide, Phenice, Sidonie

Scene 2

• ‘Armide, que le sang’ - Armide, Hidraot

Scene 3

• ‘Armide est encore plus aimable’ - Phénice, Sidonie, Chorus

Scene 4

• ‘O Ciel! O disgrace cruelle’ - Aronte, Armide, Hidraot
• ‘Poursuivons jusqu’au trépas’ - Aronte, Armide, Hidraot, Phénice, Sidonie, Chorus

Act Two

Scene 1

• ‘Invincible Heros, c’est par vostre courage’ - Artémidore, Renaud

Scene 2

• ‘Arretons-nous ici, c’est dans ce lieu fatal’ - Armide, Hidraot

Scene 3

• ‘Plus j'observe ces lieux’ - Renaud

Scene 4

• ‘Au temps heureux où l’on sait plaire’ - Naiade
• ‘Ah! Quelle erreur’ - Chorus
• Ballet
• ‘On s'étonnerait moin que la saison nouvelle’ - Naiade
• ‘Ah! Quelle erreur’ - Chorus

Scene 5

• ‘Enfin il est en ma puissance’ - Armide

Act Three

Scene 1

• ‘Ah! Si la liberté’ - Armide

Scene 2

• ‘Que ne peut point votre art?’ - Armide, Phenice, Sidonie

Scene 3

• ‘Venez, venez, Haine implacable’ - Armide

Scene 4

• ‘Je reponds a tes voeux’ - La Haine, Chorus
• ‘Plus on connait l’amour, ’ - La Haine, Chorus
• Dance of the Furies
• ‘Sors, sors du sain d’Armide, Amour, brise ta chaine’ - La Haine, Armide

Act Four

Scene 1

• ‘Nous ne trouvons partout’ - Ubalde, Le Chevalier Danois

Scene 2

• ‘Voici la charmante Retraite’ - Lucinde, Chorus
• Ballet
• ‘Allons, qui vous retient encore?’ - Lucinde, Le Chevalier Danois, Ubalde

Scene 3

• ‘Je tourne en vain les yeux’ - Le Chevalier Danois, Ubalde

Scene 4

• ‘D'où vient, que vous, vous détournez’ - Melisse, Ubalde, Le Chevalier Danois

Act Five

Scene 1

• ‘Armide! Vous m’allez quitter?’ - Armide, Renaud Ballet-Chaconne

Scene 2

• ‘Les plaisirs ont choisi pour asile’ - Chorus Ballet
• ‘Allez, éloignez-vous de moi’ - Renaud

Scene 3

• ‘Il est seul’ - Renaud, Ubalde, Le Chevalier Danois

Scene 4

• ‘Renaud? Ciel! O mortelle peine!’ - Armide, Renaud, Le Chevalier Danois, Ubalde

Scene 5

• ‘Le perfide Renaud me fuit’ - Armide