Il "Rinaldo" (1777) di Gluck -- eroe -- mitologico. RINALDIANA operistica italiana: una cronologia -- melodramma tassesco

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Rinaldo ed Armida is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, his fifth for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works.

It was first performed in Paris at the Académie Royale on 23 September 1777.

Gluck set the same libretto Philippe Quinault had written for Lulli in 1686, based on Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata.

Gluck seemed at ease in facing French traditions head-on when he composed "Rinaldo ed Armida".

Lully and Quinault were the very founders of serious opera in France and "Armida" was generally recognized as their masterpiece, so it was a bold move on Gluck's part to write new music to Quinault's words.

A similar attempt to write a new opera to the libretto of Thésée by Jean Joseph de Mondonville in 1765 had ended in disaster, with audiences demanding it be replaced by Lulli's original.

By utilizing Armida, Gluck challenged the long-standing and apparently inviolable ideals of French practice, and in the process he revealed these values capable of renewal through "modern" compositional sensitivities.

Critical response and resultant polemic resulted in one of those grand imbroglios common to French intellectual life.

Gluck struck a nerve in French sensitivities, and whereas Armida was not one of his more popular works, it remained a critical touchstone in the French operatic tradition and was warmly praised by 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.

The first modern revival of Gluck's "Rinaldo ed Armida" was presented at the Opéra Bastille in 1905 with Lucienne Bréval in the title role.

Other cast members included Alice Verlet, Agustarello Affré, Dinh Gilly, and Geneviève Vix.

Premiere Cast, 23 September 1777

Armida, a sorceress, Princess of Damascus soprano (Rosalie Levasseur)
Rinaldo, crociato, tenore (Joseph Legros)
Phénice, Armida's confidant soprano (M.lle LeBourgeois)
Sidonie, Armida's confidant soprano M.lle Châteauneuf
Hidraot, a magician, King of Damascus baritone Nicolas Gélin
Hate contralto Célestine Durancy
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"
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
A shepherdess soprano
Anne-Marie-Jeanne Gavaudan "l'aînée"
A pleasure soprano Antoinette Cécile de Saint-Huberty
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 Armide: Armide (Mireille Delunsch), Renaud (Charles Workman), La Haine (Ewa Podles), Hidraot (Laurent Naouri); Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv, 1999)

References Notes 1.^ Giroud, Vincent, liner notes for Marston 52059-2, Early French Tenors, Volume 1: Émile Scaramberg, Pierre Cornubert, and Julien Leprestre, accessed December 3, 2009 2.^ 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; Amadeusonline Almanach by Gherardo Casaglia (accessed 11 September 2010). 3.^ stage name of Madeleine-Céleste Fieuzal (or Fieusacq) de Frossac 4.^ 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). Sources Earl of Harewood and Antony Peattie, eds., The New Kobbés Opera Book, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1997 (ISBN 0091814103) (French) Théodore de Lajarte, Bibliothèque Musicale du Théatre de l'Opéra. Catalogue Historique, Chronologique, Anecdotique, Parigi, Librairie des bibliophiles, 1878, Tome I (accessible for free on-line in scribd.com – accessed 20 February 2011, ad nomen, pp. 290-293) 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) Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997 (ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2) [edit] External links Armide: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project (French) Libretto (Italian translation and French original) View page ratings Rate this page What's this? Trustworthy Objective Complete Well-written I am highly knowledgeable about this topic (optional) Submit ratings Categories: Operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck French-language operas Operas 1777 operas Operas based on works by Torquato Tasso Paris Opera world premieres