Travel Pick: Opera in France
Armide

Directed by Robert Carsen with choreography by Jean-Claude Gallotta, this production of French baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully's Armide at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in October is sure to be a hot ticket.

Set in a prologue and five acts, Armide, from 1686, is regarded as one of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s greatest masterpieces. The libretto by Philippe Quinault is based on the Renaissance poem Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso. This lyric tragedy tells the story of a sorceress’the warrior princess Armide ’ torn between hatred and attraction for the Christian knight Renaud. The music is elegant yet passionate and, at its most dramatic, portrays the full range of Armide’s emotions’from hostility to tenderness, from sensuousness to despair. From declamatory recitatives to elegant "airs à la française," the music is an opera lover’s delight. Baroque dance plays an important role in the drama too, whether poetic, dramatic, or, finally, in the Grande Passacaille that concludes Act V, profoundly majestic. Armide was first produced on the stage of the Académie Royale in Paris in 1686.

Jean-Baptiste Lully: Armide

William Christie, conductor
Robert Carsen, director

Jean-Claude Gallotta, choreography
Gideon Davey, sets and constumes
Robert Carsen et Peter Van Praet, lighting

Cast:
Claire Debono: La Gloire, Phénice, Lucinde
Isabelle Druet: La Sagesse, Sidonie, Mélisse
Stéphanie d’Oustrac: Armide
Nathan Berg: Hidraot
Paul Agnew: Renaud
Marc Mauillon: Ubalde, Aronte
Marc Callahan: Artémidore
Andrew Tortise: Le Chevalier Danois
Laurent Naouri: La Haine
Anders J. Dahlin: Un amant fortuné

Choeur et Orchestre Les Arts Florissants

The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is one of the most renowned and respected early music groups in Europe and around the world. Dedicated to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments, the ensemble was founded in 1979 by the American, William Christie, and takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Les Arts Florissants have been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in France in 17th-century French repertoire as well as in European music of the 17th and 18th centuries more generally. This was repertoire which had, for the most part, been neglected but which is now widely performed and admired.