Joseph Haydn Armida
Dramma eroico in three acts Hob. XXVIII:2
Libretto by Nunziato Porta (?) after the anonymous libretto to Rinaldo, dramma per musica by Antonio Tozzi, based on the epos La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) by Torquato Tasso
Renewal
In Italian with German and English surtitles
Duration of the performance: approx. 2,5 hours
PREMIERE
- 22 August 2009, 19:30
- 25 August 2009, 19:30
- 27 August 2009, 19:30
- 30 August 2009, 15:00
Print programme (PDF)
Ivor Bolton, Conductor
Christof Loy, Stage Director
Dirk Becker, Set Design
Bettina Walter, Costume Design
Olaf Winter, Lighting
Annika Haller, Dramaturgy
Jochen Heckmann, Choreography
A mysterious sorceress from the Orient seduces a
heroic Christian knight. He seems to forget military
glory and his fatherland but in the end he does return
to his army and intends to continue to fight against
the heathens. The story of Armida and Rinaldo was
set to music countless times and it fascinated poets,
composers and audiences for centuries. Now as the
Orient and the Occident come ever closer together
with the same measure of curiosity and animosity,
we again appear to be receptive for the tale from the
time of the crusaders.
Haydn's opera doesn’t portray how a great love
evolves and is then destroyed, but tells only of
the final crisis in a relationship between two people.
It describes in agonizing detail how the hero and the
heroine become increasingly estranged:
Rinaldo's past, the civilization he abandoned, catches
up with him; Armida on the other hand is at the
mercy of her love, but thereby loses herself, her identity and thus her attractiveness
for Rinaldo. Thus, the dramma eroico is revealed as a chamber drama of archaic dimensions, and Haydn as a modern opera composer.
Christof Loy