- Armida is the tenth opera in the Vivaldi Edition; it's the second one to be recorded by Rinaldo Alessandrini (their first was L’Olimpiade). It's a great success. Marking the end of Vivaldi's first period in Venice, it lacks music for Act II.
- ANTONIO VIVALDIARMIDA AL CAMPO D'EGITTO (RV 699-A)Libretto: Giovanni Palazzi (after Torquato Tasso) for baron Federico Girolamo di WitzendorffVenice, San Moi.
- Antonio Vivaldi: Armida al campo d'Egitto, RV699 (opera) - Play streams in full or download MP3 from Classical Archives (classicalarchives.com), the largest.
Vivaldi's opera Armida al campo d'Egitto premiered at the small San Moisè theater of Venice during the carnival celebrations of 1718. The libretto was written by Giovanni Palazzo. The arias which comprise this work are not elaborate solo pieces as in Vivaldi's later operas. Rather they are works in which the orchestra play an important role, often providing thematic material for the vocal line in its complex, contrapuntal fabric, and acting as an equal partner to the voice. Vocal dialogues with the instruments, sensitive instrumentation, and involved accompaniments make for a lively texture throughout. French influences were important to Vivaldi at this time, and dotted rhythms, syncopations, and rhythmic vitality are important in his writing. The aria 'So che combatte ancor' is marked alla Francese and filled with dotted rhythms and other French elements. Armida was revived for the carnival of 1738, and at this time much of the music was rewritten, and arias by Leonardo Leo were added.
This dissertation involved reconstructing Vivaldi's Armida al campo d'Egitto. Since the music for Act II was missing, substitute music was found in other Vivaldi operas and used for the surviving aria texts from Armida. In addition, new recitative was composed for Act II. Included in the paper is a summary of Vivaldi's career as an opera.
Appears On
| Year | Title / Performer | Label / Catalog # | AllMusic Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | OP 30492 |
Armida is a fictional character created by the Italian late Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso. She is a Saracen sorceress.
Description[edit]
In Tasso's epic Jerusalem Delivered (Italian: Gerusalemme liberata), Rinaldo is a fierce and determined warrior who is also honorable and handsome. Armida has been sent to stop the Christians from completing their mission and is about to murder the sleeping soldier, but instead she falls in love. She creates an enchanted garden where she holds him a lovesick prisoner. Eventually Charles and Ubaldo, two of his fellow Crusaders, find him and hold a shield to his face, so he can see his image and remember who he is. Rinaldo barely can resist Armida's pleadings, but his comrades insist that he return to his Christian duties. At the close of the poem, when the pagans have lost the final battle, Rinaldo, remembering his promise to be her champion, prevents her from giving way to her suicidal impulses and offers to restore her to her lost throne. She gives in at this and like the other Saracen woman, Clorinda, earlier in the piece, becomes a Christian and his 'handmaid'.
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 Dido, who committed suicide, and the evil Circe, whom Odysseus 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[edit]
The story of Armida and Rinaldo has been the basis for a number of operas:
Vivaldi Armida Alessandrini
- 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
- Armide (1777) by 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[edit]
- Armida. Choreography by Jules Perrot. Music by Cesare Pugni. First performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, St. Petersburg on 20 November [O.S. 8 November] 1855.
- Le Pavillon d'Armide. Choreography by Mikhail Fokine. Music by Nikolai Tcherepnin. First performed by the Imperial Ballet at the 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, Paris on 19 May 1909.
- Rinaldo and Armida. Choreography by Frederick Ashton. Music by Malcolm Arnold. First performed by the Sadler's Wells Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 6 January 1955.
Gallery[edit]
Rinaldo and Armida, by Tiepolo 1755.
Rinaldo and Armida, by Gerard Hoet
Charles Errard: Renaud abandonnant Armide, Renaud abandoning Armida
Nicolas Colombel - Rinaldo abandoning Armida
References[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Armida. |
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.Missing or empty |title= (help)
Antonio Vivaldi Armida Al Campo D'egitto