ROSSINI : ARMIDA

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 20th of March 2011 at 3.03 - 7.00 pm 
Sunday 23rd of May 2010 at 3.03 - 7.25 pm


INTRODUCTION
HISTORY

REVIEW
LIBRETTO (Italian, Spanish) by Giuvanni Schmidt (!)


2011
ROSSINI: Armida, an opera in three acts
The subject matter for Rossini's 1817 opera Armida was widely popular from the seventeenth through to the early twentieth centuries. Indeed, there are almost 100 operas and ballets that employ the story of the Saracen sorceress and her desire for the Christian warrior, Rinaldo
Armida.......................... Renée Fleming
Rinaldo......................... Lawrence Brownlee
Goffredo....................... John Osborn
Gernando...................... Antonino Siragusa
Carlo............................ Barry Banks
Ubaldo.......................... Kobie van Rensburg
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Riccardo Frizza
2010
Armida.......................... Renée Fleming
Rinaldo......................... Lawrence Brownlee
Goffredo....................... John Osborne
Gernando...................... José Manuel Zapata
Carlo............................ Barry Banks
Ubaldo.......................... Kobie van Rensburg
Eustazio........................ Yegishe Manucharyan
Idraote.......................... Peter Volpe
Astarotte....................... Keith Miller
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Riccardo Frizza

Renée Fleming likes this rare Rossini piece (she has performed and recorded it before), and because she does such a good job hosting the Metropera video recordings we see in our cinema, they let her have a première of it. This one is at the movies, too, (in 2010) and I wonder who will introduce it and interview Renée (it was Deborah Voigt).

A legion of composers have set this fantasy tale of the witch enticing the knight Rinaldo into her pleasure garden, starting with Vivaldi and Haendel, and including Dvorak, and Gluck.
   These operas were based on Torquato Tasso's poem Gerusalemme Liberata (1575); Gluck's version (1777) was preceded by those of Ferrari (1639), Lully (1686), Handel (Rinaldo 1711), Salieri (1773), and followed by many others, notably by Haydn (1784), Rossini's Armida (1817), and one by Dvoràk (1904); the total is about three dozen or two score. The Handel and Rossini versions are becoming well known in the revival of early opera.
   Set in the Crusade era, the tale involves a love affair between Armida (a Muslim queen of Damascus, who has magical powers) and Renaud or Rinaldo (a Christian Crusader ); she takes him to her pleasure-palace, but he is brought back to his mission of liberating Jerusalem; she destroys her palace by fire and disappears.

I have heard rumours about people walking out of the Metropera performance; possibly they would be the impatient patrons who cannot concentrate for four hours, or else they had a ferry or a train to catch.

In the Decca video recording of this production (1 May 2010), Barry Banks took two of the tenor parts (Gernando in Act 1, killed in a duel with Rinaldo, and Carlo in Act 3).

ACT 1  Outside Jerusalem during the Crusades
This production has Love (a small woman as Cupid, Teele Ude) descending to the stage during the overture, and Revenge (Isaac Scranton) will also appear high up, when relevant.
   The paladins (Crusaders) are ready for battle, to liberate Jerusalem.Their commander (Goffredo, that is, Godfrey or Gottfried) reminds them that they must perform the funerary rites for their deceased leader, Dudone.
   A noblewoman enters, pleading for assistance, claiming to be the rightful ruler of Damascus, but dethroned by her evil uncle Idraote. Actually, she is the sorceress and seductress Armida; and she is in league with Idraote, who is accompanying her, disguised as her attendant. The plan is to abduct the best of the Christian soldiers and weaken them with sensual delights  in her pleasure-palace.
   Goffredo is persuaded to help her: a leader and ten stalwart men will go with her. Rinaldo is elected to this role, but Gernando is violently envious of him.
   Armida and Rinaldo know each other already: she had saved his life by her magic and they had secretly fallen in love (like Isolde and Tristan, not confessing their love to each other at first) abd they finally acknowledge it.
   Gernando accuses Rinaldo of lechery, and in the ensuing duel he is killed. The army turn against Rinaldo, but Armida casts a spell over them with her wand, and he escapes with her.

ACT 2  Orrida selva (A horrible forest)
Astarotte, a prince from Hell, has brought a band of demons to this ghastly
forest, intent on building a pleasure-palace for Armida. The loving couple
arrive, and Rinaldo is completely in her thrall, even though he knows what
she intended to do to his army. There are nymphs to add to his delights;
Armida singing of the power of love, and a ballet that portrays the story of
the two lovers, and the happy outcome they desire.
(Rinaldo is echanted by this equivalent of Tannhäuser’s Venusberg.)

ACT 3  Armida’s garden
Ubaldo and Carlo, two of Rinaldo’s companions in arms, come to rescue him.
They ward off the pesky nymphs with a magical gold staff. They conceal
themselves when the infatuated pair comes along. Armida takes leave of
Rinaldo (she will come back soon, though), and his companions then confront
him. They show him his reflection in a shield, and he is horrified to see
that he is not the warrior that he was.
  He can not bear the thought of  deserting her, but he prays for strength,
and a celestial light persuades him to go with his rescuers.
  When Armida returns and notices his absence, she summons the powers of
Hell to restore him to her, unsuccessfully.
  She hastens to the shore to prevent the boat from leaving. She pleads
with Rinaldo, offering to fight on his side, but his friends drag him away
from her.
  The two figures who have lurked throughout the action, namely Love and
Revenge, appear, and she must decide on her next move. She chooses Revenge,
destroys the palace, and flies away in her car.
  That is how it ends, in this version of the story. Handel’s Rinaldo is
different: he loves another woman; Armida has a rival.....