Armida
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Armida is the fictional character of a Saracen sorceress, created by the Italian late Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso.
Description
In Tasso's epic
Many painters and composers were inspired by Tasso's tale. The works that resulted often added or subtracted an element; Tasso himself continued to edit the story for years. In some versions, Armida is converted to Christianity, in others, she rages and destroys her own enchanted garden.
She occupies a place in the literature of abandoned women such as the tragic
abandoned to return home, but she is considered by many to be more human and thus more compelling and sympathetic than either of them.In opera
The story of Armida and Rinaldo has been the basis for a number of operas:
- Armida abbandonata (1627) by Claudio Monteverdi (lost)
- Armide (1686) by Jean-Baptiste Lully
- Rinaldo and Armida (1698) by John Dennis
- Rinaldo (1711) by George Frideric Handel
- Armida al campo d'Egitto (1718) by Antonio Vivaldi
- Armida (1761) by Tommaso Traetta
- Armida abbandonata (1770) by Niccolò Jommelli
- Armida (1771) by Antonio Salieri
- Armida (1772) by Antonio Sacchini
- Christoph Willibald von Gluck
- Armida (1780) by Josef Mysliveček
- Renaud (1783), also by Sacchini
- Armida (1784) by Joseph Haydn
- Armida e Rinaldo (1786) by Giuseppe Sarti
- Armida (1802) by Francesco Bianchi
- Armida (1817) by Gioachino Rossini
- Armida (1904) by Antonín Dvořák
- Armida (2005) by Judith Weir
On 1 May 2010, Rossini's Armida was performed and broadcast live to theaters around the world in the series MetLive in HD.[1]
Johannes Brahms composed a cantata entitled Rinaldo based on the story.
Armida as a ballet
- Armida. Choreography by St. Petersburg on 20 November [O.S.8 November] 1855.
- Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg on 25 November [O.S. 12 November] 1907. Second premiere given by the Ballets Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Parison 19 May 1909.
- Rinaldo and Armida. Choreography by Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Londonon 6 January 1955.
Gallery
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Rinaldo and Armida, by Tiepolo 1755.
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Rinaldo and Armida, by Gerard Hoet
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Charles Errard: Renaud abandonnant Armide, Renaud abandoning Armida
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Nicolas Colombel - Rinaldo abandoning Armida
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. {{cite encyclopedia}}
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