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Armide (1783) - Christoph Willibald Gluck
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Background
Armide was premiered at the Paris Opéra on September 23, 1777, recalling the earlier success of Lully’s opera of the same name, which premiered nearly a century earlier on February 15, 1686. After collaborating on several reform operas with Calzabigi, Gluck revived the older dramatic tradition of Quinault (Lully's librettist) by setting the older text in the modern musical style. The seventeenth-century five act model requires more continuous music, with few distinct arias, as well as divertissements and spectacular effects. Gluck also respects the tragic conclusion endemic to the model, avoiding the modern practice of the lieto fine ("happy ending") in which misfortunes are reversed at the last possible moment. By the time Armide appeared, Gluck had already supplied the Académie Royale de Musique with four operas—Iphigénie en Aulide, Orphée et Eurydice, Cythère assiégée, and Alceste. Two other Paris operas, Iphigénie en Tauride and Echo et Narcisse, followed.
By 1623, the story of Armide, drawn from Tasso’s lengthy epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata (1581), had appeared as an intermedio by Ottavio Vernizzi (Armida abbandonata, Bologna). Claudio Monteverdi mentions his now lost Armida abbandonata (written by 1626) in correspondence. Others who preceded Gluck in setting the famous story include Handel (Rinaldo, London, 1711) and Salieri (Armida, Venice, 1777). Later operas by Haydn (Armida, Esterháza, 1784), Rossini (Armida, Naples, 1817), and Dvořák (Armida, Prague, 1904) are among the approximately hundred musical treatments of Tasso’s text.
Plot
In the first act, Armide, who is both a sorceress and the princess of Damascus, has triumphed over a group of crusaders, but she is dissatisfied because she has not conquered one of them—Renaud. She tells her confidantes (Phénice and Sedonie) of a disturbing dream in which she fell in love with Renaud as he killed her. When her uncle Hidraut, the king of Damascus, encourages Armide to marry, she declares that any prospective husband must first overcome Renaud. During a celebration, an announcement is made that Renaud has rescued the imprisoned crusaders.
Act Two begins with Renaud advising Artémidore to return to the crusader camp, but Renaud cannot join the camp because he has been expelled. Although Artémidore is concerned about Armide’s power, Renaud feels no threat. However, Armide and Hidraut place a spell on Renaud, with the help of spirits from the underworld. When Renaud becomes entranced, disguised evil spirits sing him to sleep, affording Armide the opportunity to stab her enemy. Armide cannot follow through on her plan, though, and instead she decides to seek revenge by seducing him. The spirits subsequently carry Armide and Renaud away to a desert.
The third act reveals the conflict between Armide's romantic feelings for Renaud and her simultaneous hatred of him. Armide resolves to cure herself of love by calling on Hatred for assistance. Again, she is too tormented to carry out her scheme, and the unsympathetic Hatred tells her that there is no worse punishment than unrequited love.
Two crusaders (the Danish Knight and Ubalde) search for Renaud at the beginning of the fourth act. They are armed with a magical shield and scepter that help them get past monsters guarding Armide and Renaud. The crusaders then encounter apparitions of their beloveds in the desert, which has mystically been transformed into a scenic countryside. Again, they draw on their enchanted weapons to get past this challenge.
In Act Five, Armide expresses her worry that Renaud will abandon her, as Hatred warned. When Armide leaves Renaud alone, he is unable to appreciate the entertainment she has supplied for him, and he wishes for her to return. Before Armide can return, the Danish Knight and Ubalde arrive to rescue Renaud from his spell. As Renaud is escaping, Armide confronts him, but he deserts her nonetheless. Armide, who is still struggling with her conflicting feelings, commands the demons to destroy her castle, and she flies off on a magical chariot to avenge the betrayal.
Bibliography
Title from title page: ARMIDE / DRAME HÉROIQUE / Mise en Musique
Genre: Drame héroïque
Siglum from Gluck thematic catalog: W. 45
Composer: Christoph Willibald Gluck, 1714-1787
Librettist: Philippe Quinault, 1635-1688
Libretto based on: Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme liberata
Setting: Damascus at the time of the First Crusade
Premiere: Paris, Opéra, 23 September 1777
First published: Paris: Au bureau du journal de musique, n.d.
Volume in the UNT Collection: Paris: Des Lauriers, n.d.
For further reading on Armide, see:
Buschmeier, Gabriele. “Glucks Armide-Monolog, Lully und die ‘Philosophes.’” In Festshrift Klaus Hortschansky zum 60. Geburtstag. Tutzing, Germany: Schneider, 1995. 167-80.
Del Monte, Claudio. Christoph Willibald Gluck nel 200’ anniversario della morte. Edited by Vincenzo Raffaele Segreto, Quaderni del Teatro Regio Citta di Parma, no. 19. Parma, Italy: Grafiche, 1987.
Gallarati, Paolo. “La sfida di Armide: Gluck ‘pittore’ e ‘poeta.’” Musica e storia 7 (1999): 465-87.
Hayes, Jeremy. “Armide (ii).” Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy. [Accessed 17 December 2003]. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
Schneider, Herbert. “Gluck and Lully.” In Lully Studies, ed. John Hajdu Heyer, pp. 243-71. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Physical
Dimensions: 35 x 26 cm.
Collation: [20: unsigned, 1-142 154 (-153, 154) 16-382 392 (-392) 40-682 692 (-692) 70-722]; 142 leaves, pp. [4] 1-79 [280].
Conservation: Deckle edges; wear on cover and pages; dirty pages; detached text block; detached gatherings.
Binding: Dark blue paper covered board with black buckram repair of spine.
Comments: Copper-plate engraving (plates measure 27.6 x 20 cm).