Armide

Armide, with a libretto by Philippe Quinault and a score by Jean-Baptiste Lully, had had its world premiere at the Palais-Royal in 1686 (for Lully, Quinault, and Armide, see seventeenth-century volume), but it was not until 23 September 1777 that Gluck’s new score for Quinault’s libretto was heard at the Opéra. This latter score for Quinault’s poem is considered one of Gluck’s most admirable accomplishments, and musicians have nominated a number of passages in it as being worthy of admission…