Armide (Lully)
|
For other works with the same title, see Armide
Armide is an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The libretto was written by Philippe Quinault, based on Torquato Tasso's La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered).
It was first performed in Paris at the Paris Opera on February 15, 1686. Eighteenth-century critics regarded Armide as Lully's masterpiece. Unlike most of Lully's operas, Armide concentrates on the sustained psychological development of a character — not Renaud, whose supposed heroic conflict between love and duty disappears the moment his enchantment is broken, but Armide, who repeatedly tries without success to choose vengeance over lover and ultimately achieves neither.Template:Opera-stub