An oratorio sometimes staged as an opera, Monteverdi's Tasso-based 1624 Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda pits its two title characters against each other on the war field. Tancredi, a Christian knight, loves Clorinda, a Moslem woman. She rides off to fight for the Saracen side, completely covered in armor, and succeeds in burning down a Christian castle. Tancredi defeats the Saracen warrior and is about to baptize "him" when he discovers that his adversary is none other than his own Clorinda.
Rossini's 1813 Tancredi, which also drew upon Voltaire's Tancrède, stars a different heroine. Tancredi, rightful heir to the Sicilian throne, has just returned from the Crusades only to find his beloved, Amenaide, daughter of the King of Syracuse, about to marry (under duress) Orbazzano, who has usurped the Duke of Sicily and claimed the throne for himself. Orbazzano, intercepting a letter Amenaide sends to Tancredi, accuses her of writing to the enemy (the Saracens). Here the plot takes a now-familiar turn: Amenaide is condemned to death unless a champion comes forth to defend her. Of course, Tancredi is the one to do so...in addition to which he reveals her fiancé's treachery and defeats the Saracens (ah, the power of true love!).
Over twenty-five operas exist about Armida alone, by such early composers as Lully right up through Dvorák (in 1904). Rossini's 1817 Armida is perhaps best known now for its daunting casting: the original production required seven tenors, though these days a production might conceivably squeak through with as few as four (doubling in smaller roles). Armida is a Damascene sorceress who has fallen in love with Rinaldo, a Christian knight who owes his allegiance to Goffredo, aka Godfrey of Bouillon. In the Rossini version, Armida devises a scheme to weaken the Crusaders' military strength by involving Goffredo and his knights in a concocted skirmish to restore the throne of Damascus, which is actually quite securely ruled by her uncle. Rinaldo initially refuses to be diverted from his original purpose - liberating Zion - to fight for her "cause" -- but then, besotted with Armida, he agrees to flee with her. She spirits him away to an enchanted garden where the couple is serendaded by the forces of Love...and where Tancredi is stripped of his weapons and ornamented with flowers. Goffredo and his men invade the garden, and manage to catch the knight alone. They shame him: "Avvilito guerrier, sciavo d'amore" - "Humiliated warrior, slave of love" and finish off their tirade by holding up his cast-off shield, for him to see what a flower-bedecked fop he has become. Machismo reigns. He rejoins the Crusaders with such resolve that Armida, returning, is powerless to stop him. She pleads with him to allow her to accompany him as a page or servant, but he refuses. In an unusual turn for an opera -- ordinarily we expect "closure" at the final curtain -- this work ends with Armida, destroying her garden of bliss and then flying off in her chariot with her Furies to avenge herself upon "un traditor" -- Rinaldo, now "a traitor." Curtain!
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