Armide

One of the most celebrated of all early French operas, Lully’s Armide premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1686, the culmination of his long-time collaboration with the poet Philippe Quinault. Based on Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (1581), the plot takes place during the First Crusade and revolves around the coercive love of the sorceress Armide for the knight Renaud, who ultimately escapes her enchantments. It was Lully and Quinault’s only opera to focus on the sustained psychological development of a character—Armide—conflicted by her love and hatred for the Christian knight. In the most famous scene (Act II, scene 5), Armide stands over the sleeping Renaud, dagger in hand, but cannot kill him. Her simple monologue (“Enfin il est en ma puissance”) is powerfully sincere, full of naturalistic rhythms and expressive stresses and rests. The opera was a huge success, often revived, and didn’t leave the stage until 1766. Later revivals of Lully’s operas were lightly retouched to suit contemporary taste, leaving the fundamentals unaffected. But in 1778, Armide was thoroughly rewritten by Louis-Joseph Francoeur for the Paris Opéra, with a new overture in the latest symphonic style and updated orchestration, including parts for clarinets. Lully’s most mature operatic work, Armide became a model for subsequent generations, especially for its expressive word setting.