Category: Tragédie en musique in five acts and a prologue
Language: French
Running times: 3h (including interval)
Premiered: 1686, Académie Royale de Musique (Paris)
New production: June 17th 2024, Opéra-Comique
Stage director : Lilo Baur • Set designer: Bruno de Lavenère • Costume designer: Alain Blanchot • Lighting designer: Laurent Castaingt • Choreography: Claudia de Serpa Soares
Cast
Number of Principals: 9
Chorus / parts (S/A/T/B): 28 (8/6/7/7)
Extras: 6 dancers
Instrumentation
36 : 2.2.0.2/0.0.0.0/ vdg / 3 luths-guitare / 5.5.333.7
Volume of the production
3 containers
Other info
Last performed : Opéra-Comique, June 2024
Production : Opéra-Comique
In a few words
When Syria was a land of crusades and legends, its queen Armide captivated more than she captured Christian knights: her charms were sovereign. However, when the valiant Renaud undertakes to free his companions, the invincible sorceress falls in love with him, and her unnatural love proves destructive...
Written on a subject chosen by Louis XIV, Quinault's libretto inspired Lully's most beautiful work of their collaboration, but also the last, as both died shortly after. Popularized under the name "opéra des dames," Armide was the very first French opera performed in Italy, before becoming a model of the genre for Europeans in the Age of Enlightenment.
Director of Artistic Coordination, Production and Development
Concept
“This magnificent tragedy is more the story of an inner conflict, that of Armide, than an epic text confronting the representatives of two communities against the background of religious wars. [...] What interests me is to show Armide's particular power. [...] Armide's power is above all that of a magician, whose art is a poetic form of manipulation.” - Lilo Baur, director
Productions catalogue
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