Knights at the Opera, Part 13 - Liberating Jerusalem

In Gluck's 1777 Armide, there is more of a love-hate relationship from the very start. Armide is in love with Rinaldo, but it is she who feels her first loyalty is political: to prevent the knight from conquering her Moslem lands. She casts a spell upon him that transports him to a garden...where, instead of serenading him, she wishes to kill him. However, her love for him is too strong, and she cannot go through with it. Enter Plan B: she transports him to a palace where, beguiled by her magic, he forgets about his mission. Two knights arrive, searching for him, but Armide intercepts them, summoning up an assortment of visions to prevent their rescue of Rinaldo. Each vision in turn disappears when they raise a consecrated scepter. Finally, they infiltrate Armide's palace. As they hold up the scepter and Rinaldo's shield, the Crusader's memory is restored. He leaves with his fellow knights but, instead of pursuing him as in Rossini's opera, the anguished Armide sets fire to her palace and dies in the flames (a Götterdämmerung touch, no?).

Handel's 1711 Rinaldo -- incidentally, the very first Handel opera that the Metropolitan Opera ever staged (in 1984) -- covers much the same ground, but with an almost Verdian plot. Here, Godfrey promises Rinaldo the hand of his daughter, Almirena, who is then kidnapped by the combined forces of King Argantes of Palestine and his lover, Armida. Armida tries to ensnare Rinaldo in order to destroy him, but falls in love with him; he, however, is ever aware of his bonds with Almirena. Godfrey saves Rinaldo from the enchantress's clutches, and the knight goes on to liberate the sealed city of Jerusalem, as well as to convert Argantes and Armida to Christianity, and to marry Almirena. Although this opera has a happy, not fiery, end, a recent production at New York City Opera contained a fantastic scene in which Armida managed to ignite a harpsichord...a special effect that gave us a taste of how such atmospheric works might well have been produced in the opera houses of several centuries ago.

To wrap up this series, next week we'll look at the real-life Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancredi, and what roles they played in the First Crusade.

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