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Overview

Synopsis

Judith Weir’s Armida is an updating of the Armida legend to a time recent enough for TV stations and smartphones. Rather than transporting the audience to the crusades in Damascus, it shows them that perhaps we have never left. The International Peacekeeping Force is in a desert war zone, somewhere outside an occupied city in the region of the Southern Sahara. The soldiers have the wrong equipment and the wrong maps, and a Chief-of-Staff who keeps getting things wrong. They are not the attacking force here, but are also not achieving anything by remaining outside the city.

The sorceress Armida is now a TV reporter within the occupied city, and Hidroat is no longer the King of Damascus, but the Director of Metropolis TV. When the officers invite the TV Reporters to visit their camp and do a feature on them, Metropolis TV responds. During an interview, Armida and Rinaldo disappear, but it is not magic this time, merely an explosion and a stolen van. Armida takes Rinaldo to her apartment, and the two of them fall in love over a mutual desire for peace.

Officers Ubaldo and Carlo attempt to rescue Rinaldo from the city, but get distracted from their mission by a tray of colorful drinks offered by the weather girl. Back at the camp, The Chief-of-Staff, Goffredo, is similarly distracted, but this time by planting crops and tending to goats. The war is over, and the world has been transformed. Everyone has found something else they would much rather be doing.

Weir cleverly references both Lully’s opera Armide and Gluck’s later rewriting of the same libretto in her baroque style duets and love scenes, but this opera written for television is a hopeful and refreshing interpretation of the Armida myth.

Show Information

Music
Judith Weir
Libretto
Judith Weir
Category
Opera
Age Guidance
Youth (Y)/General Audiences (G)
Number of Acts
2
First Produced
2005
Genres
Romance, Satire, Fairy Tale/Fantasy
Settings
Contemporary, Multiple Settings
Time & Place
An Occupied City, An Army Camp, Southern Sahara, Modern Times
Cast Size
medium
Orchestra Size
Small
Dancing
None
Licensor
The Music Sales Group
Ideal For
Professional Opera, Mostly Male Cast, College/University, Includes Mature Adult, Adult, Young Adult, Child Characters, Medium Cast

Context

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Plot

Characters

Name Part Size Gender Vocal Part

Goffredo

Lead

Male

Baritone

Rinaldo

Lead

Male

Tenor

Armida

Lead

Female

Mezzo-Soprano

Ubaldo

Supporting

Male

Tenor

Carlo

Supporting

Male

Baritone

Idraote

Supporting

Male

Bass

Ms Pescado

Supporting

Female

Soprano

Two Children (2)

Featured

Either Gender

Non-singer

The Army (Chorus)

Ensemble

Male

Tenor, Baritone, Bass

Songs

Act One

Scene 1 : Overture

Scene 2: In the Army Camp

  • ‘Rankadidi!’ - Goffredo, Army
  • ‘Dear Mum, It’s not bad where we are’ - Carlo, Army, Goffredo
  • ‘Sir! I have to point out’ - Ubaldo, Army, Goffredo
  • ‘You know, I went out for a walk today’ - Rinaldo

Scene 3: Metropolis TV

  • ‘Will never leave you…’ - Armida, Idraote, Ms Pescado
  • ‘Metropolis Weather!’ - Ms Pescado

Scene 4: Army HQ

  • ‘Rinaldo! Straight at the camera’ - Carlo, Goffredo, Ubaldo,
  • ‘People of the Occupied Zone’ - Rinaldo, Armida, Idraote

Scene 5: In the Metropolis TV Van on the way to the army camp

  • ‘Leave town by the south west road’ - Armide, Idraote

Scene 6: Army Camp

  • ‘Ah, dinner time’ - Army
  • ‘Ah, hello, welcome’ - Goffredo, Ubaldo, Carlo, Armida, Idraote
  • ‘Is it worth it?’ - Armida, Ubaldo, Carlo, Goffredo
  • ‘Tell me, what is the high and low point?’ - Armida, Rinaldo
  • ‘I thought it was gas’ - Ubaldo, Carlo, Goffredo, Idraote, Two Children

Act Two

Scene 7: In the Metropolis TV van on the way back to the city

  • ‘Heaven and earth, mountain and desert’ - Ms Pescado, Rinaldo, Armida

Scene 8: At Army HQ, Next Morning

  • ‘Sensors?’ - ‘Redundant’ - Ubaldo, Goffredo
  • ‘I’ve been haunted’ - Carlo, Idraote, Ubaldo, Goffredo

Scene 9: In a rooftop restaurant overlooking the port

  • Baroque Duet: ‘Rinaldo! Why have you left your command?’ - Armida, Rinaldo

Scene 10: In the streets of the city

  • ‘Do you think that people can tell’ - Ubaldo, Carlo

Scene 11: On a roof terrace, looking out to sea

  • Love Scene: ‘Did you ever think in the whole of your life’ - Armida, Rinaldo, Ms Pescado

Scene 12: In the streets of the city, in the vicinity of Armida’s Apartment

  • ‘Rinaldo! What are you wearing’ - Carlo, Ubaldo, Rinaldo

Scene 13: At the Army Camp

  • ‘Perennial planting water all around’ - Goffredo, Idroate

Scene 14: Metropolis TV News (And Weather)

Scene 15: Finale

A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.

Monologues

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Scenes

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Guide Written By:

Wendy Silvester

Wendy Silvester

Singer and vocal coach based in the UK.