Armide (Gluck)
Armide is an
Salle du Palais-Royal
in Paris.
Background and performance history
Gluck set the same libretto
Berlioz in his Memoirs. Gluck also set a minor fashion for resetting Lully/Quinault operas: Gluck's rival Piccinni followed his example with Roland in 1778 and Atys in 1780; in the same year, Philidor produced a new Persée; and Gossec offered his version of Thésée in 1782. Gluck himself is said to have been working on an opera based on Roland
, but he abandoned it when he heard Piccinni had taken on the same libretto.
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Armide remained on the repertoire of the Parisian
Eugène Carpezat
(Act I), Amable (Acts II and V), and Marcel Jambon and Alexandre Bailly (Acts III and IV).
The Opéra's 1905 production was followed on 7 November 1905 by a big-budget staging at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. Overseen by Gluck connoisseur François-Auguste Gevaert, it featured Félia Litvinne in the title role, costumes by the symbolist artist Fernand Khnopff, and eight sets by Albert Dubosq. Hugely successful, this sumptuous production enjoyed a first run of forty performances, with subsequent revivals in 1909, 1924 and 1948.
The Metropolitan Opera staged the work for the opening of its 1910–1911 season. Toscanini conducted a cast led by Olive Fremstad, Louise Homer and Enrico Caruso.[2]
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 23 September 1777[3] (Conductor) |
|---|---|---|
| Armide, a sorceress, Princess of Damascus |
soprano | Rosalie Levasseur |
| Renaud, a Crusader
|
haute-contre | Joseph Legros |
| Phénice, Armide's confidant | soprano | M.lle LeBourgeois |
| Sidonie, Armide's confidant | soprano | M.lle Châteauneuf |
| Hidraot, a magician, King of Damascus |
baritone | Nicolas Gélin |
| Hate | contralto[4] | Céleste [Célestine] Durancy [5] |
| The Danish Knight, a Crusader | tenor | Étienne Lainez (also spelled Lainé) |
| Ubalde, a Crusader | baritone | Henri Larrivée |
| A demon in the form of Lucinde, the Danish Knight's beloved |
soprano | Anne-Marie-Jeanne Gavaudan "l'aînée"[6] |
| A demon in the form of Mélisse, Ubalde's beloved |
soprano | Antoinette Cécile de Saint-Huberty |
| Aronte, in charge of Armide's prisoners |
baritone | Georges Durand |
| Artémidore, a Crusader | tenor | Thirot |
| A naiad | soprano | Anne-Marie-Jeanne Gavaudan "l'aînée"[7] |
| A shepherdess | soprano | Anne-Marie-Jeanne Gavaudan "l'aînée"[6] |
| A pleasure | soprano | Antoinette Cécile de Saint-Huberty[7] |
| people of Damascus, nymphs, shepherds and shepherdesses, suite of Hate, demons, Pleasures, coryphaei | ||
Synopsis
For the storyline, see Armide by Lully. Gluck kept the libretto unchanged, although he cut the allegorical prologue and added a few lines of his own devising to the end of Act Three. Similarly, the roles and the disposition of the voices are the same as in Lully's opera.
Recordings
- Audio conducted by Rossi, with McKnight/Gardino/Picchi/Mollet (Melodram, recorded live in Torino in 1958)
- Armide (Felicity Palmer), Renaud (Anthony Rolfe Johnson), La Haine (Linda Finnie), Hidraot (Raimund Herincx); City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox (EMI, recorded live in London in June 1982)
- Video conducted by Ramin, with Caballé/Szirmay/Lindroos/Baquerizo (YouTube, filmed in Madrid on April 16, 1985)
- Armide (Mireille Delunsch), Renaud (Charles Workman), La Haine (Ewa Podleś), Hidraot (Laurent Naouri); Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski (Archiv, recorded live in Paris in November and December 1996)
- Audio conducted by Muti, with Antonacci/Urmana/Cole/Albert (House of Opera, recorded live in Milan on December 7, 1996)
References
Notes
- ^ Giroud, Vincent, liner notes for Marston 52059-2, Early French Tenors, Volume 1: Émile Scaramberg, Pierre Cornubert, and Julien Leprestre, accessed December 3, 2009 Archived June 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Anthony Tommasini (November 19, 1999). "Opera Review; Love, Alas, Not Sorcery, Was Her True Calling". The New York Times.
- ^ Roles and premiere cast from The New Kobbés Opera Book; Jeremy Hayes, Armide (ii), in The New Grove Dictionary, I, p. 202; Pitou, p. 52; Lajarte, p. 291; Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Armide, 23 September 1777". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
- ^ This role, though often ascribed to the contralto voice, was notated, as usual in the period French opera, in the soprano clef (cf. original printed score).
- ^ stage name of Madeleine-Céleste Fieuzal (or Fieusacq) de Frossac
- ^ a b Source: "Mercure de France" (October 1777), as cited by Arthur Pougin (Figures d'Opéra-comique, Paris, Tresse 1875, pp. 151–152; accessible for free online in archive.org).
- ^ a b Source: Armide. Tragédie Lyrique de Quinault (Partition Piano et Chant Réduite et Annotée par F.-A. Gevaert), Paris/Bruxelles, Lemoine, 1902, p. XVII (a copy at Internet Archive).
Sources
- ISBN 0091814103)
- Théodore de Lajarte, Bibliothèque Musicale du Théatre de l'Opéra. Catalogue Historique, Chronologique, Anecdotique, Parigi, Librairie des bibliophiles, 1878, Tome I, ad nomen, pp. 290–293 (in French) (accessible online at Internet Archive)
- Spire Pitou, The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Rococo and Romantic, 1715–1815, Greenwood Press, Westport/London, 1985 (ISBN 0-313-24394-8)
- ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2)
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Armide (Gluck).
- Armide: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project (French)
- Original libretto at Gallica, Bibliothéque Nationale de France (in French)
- Original printed score at Gallica, Bibliothéque Nationale de France (in French)
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