Armida

by JOSEPH HAYDN
Schwetzinger Festival (Germany)
Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble;
Thomas Hengelbrock, conductor

Performers listed below.

Ready for a pop quiz?
Good, here it is:

What single story was turned into operas by no less than FIVE truly great composers: Lully, Handel, Gluck, Rossini and Haydn? OK, so you've looked at the top of this page, and know the answer already. But if you play along anyway, your answer would probably be a play by Shakespeare, right? If not that, then something from the Classics - maybe Sophocles. Either of those would be a pretty good guess. Think of all the operas based on Shakespeare - there are hundreds - and all the operas about Electra and Ihpigenia, Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, and the rest of that dysfunctional bunch.

But both of those guesses would be wrong. The real answer is one that most of us wouldn't think of. It's the story of Armida, from Torquato Tasso's poem, "Jerusalem Liberated." But why Armida? Why would all those great composers have set this complicated story about a cranky, Middle Eastern sorceress who gets mixed up in the Crusades?

It might be because the plot turns on one of the central dilemmas in everyone's life: the conflict between passion, and duty. That is, should you do what you know is "the right thing" - you know, to fulfill your responsibilities to family and colleagues, or even just to eke out a living, and not be a burden to others? Or should you do what you really want, deep down, like spend your life savings on some intense but meaningless pleasure, or abandon your duties to run off with that one lover who's like nobody you've ever met before? Most of us never get to make that choice. Not really.

So maybe, the story of Armida has been durable because it's all about people who get to have it both ways, at least for a while. Armida is a middle-eastern enchantress who's assigned by the King of Damascus to disrupt the Crusades. Thus her "duty" is to seduce Crusader Knights, lure them away from their duties, and then dispose of them. You might call her a "paranormal Mata Hari." The trouble is, when Armida gets her hooks into the top Crusader general, a guy named Rinaldo, she also falls in love with him.

So, they've both got big "duty" dilemmas. For Armida, it's whether to keep shacking up with this guy, or do her job and kill him. For Rinaldo, it's whether to stay with this literally "enchanting" lover, or go back to his Crusader buddies and lead them to ultimate victory on some potentially fatal battlefield.

For a while, it seems both the Witch and the Crusader can enjoy their torrid affair, ignore their responsiblilities, and get away with it! And that may be one reason why everday folks who happen to like opera also seem to love this story. Who wouldn't like to "have it both ways?"

But in the end, both Armida and Rinaldo suffer miserably, as a reward for their temporary bliss. Which may be another reason audiences keep tuning in for this one. After all, if we can't get away with ignoring our mundane duties, why should anybody else? And, when we see the misery these characters endure, our own workaday plight doesn't seem so bad after all. So, if you're up for a little vicarious bliss, OR for watching some undeserving fools "get theirs" in the end, dial up Joseph Haydn's ARMIDA, this week on WORLD OF OPERA, with host Steve Curwood.

Join Lou Santacroce for NPR’s AT THE OPERA, for a preview 30 minutes before curtain time.

Performers:
Iano Tamar, Armida; Thorsten Karl, Rinaldo; Kornelia Eng, Zelmira; Wolfgang Mattias Friedrich, Idreno; Kobie van Rensburg, Ubaldo


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