"'If you have heard 'Armide' performed well, you may flatter yourself on having heard the most beautiful piece of music to have been written in the past fifteen or sixteen centuries: of that I am most confident. [...] For myself, I believe I have seen a performance of 'Armide' that entitles me to put that work above everything so many centuries have produced. The memory of that night has always remained with me, and I cherish it.'
"Thus enthused a young Rouen magistrate and opera-lover, Jean-Laurent Lecerf de La Viéville, over the last of the tragedies en musique produced by Quinault and Lully. Since Lecerf was only twelve years old in 1686, when the work was first performed, he must have attended one of the many revivals in Paris, probably in 1697 or during the 1703-04 season. For one who greatly appreciated Tancrède, composed by a man of his own generation, Campra, the older 'Armide' that made such a strong impression on him seemed the finest example of 'total theatre,' worthy of the plays of Euripides or Sophocles. In his 'Comparaison de la musique italienne et de la musique francaise,' published in 1706, he lauded the strength of both the libretto and the music. 'Do you know anything in all our operas more universally captivating and moving than the two pieces sung by Armide?' he wrote with reference to the two grand arias ('Enfin it est en ma puissance,' Act II, Scene V, and 'Renaud, Ciel, ô mortelle peine,' Act V, Scene IV).
"And he was not alone in being moved by those later performances: 'When Armide is about to stab Renaud in the final scene of Act II,' he reported, 'I have seen the whole audience, all eyes and ears, frozen with fear, not daring to breathe, until the air for the violin at the end of the scene finally releases the tension and allows them to breathe again, and a hum of joy and admiration is heard. [...] This unanimous reaction showed that the scene was indeed amazing.'
"For Lecerf, everything about 'Armide,' 'the ladies' opera,' was admirable, 'supremely beautiful.' The music was 'simple. free and easy, and consistent,' with Lully 'skilfully bringing out the meaning [of every word] in the recitative.' Everything amazed him: the violin accompaniment, the exclamations, the 'vivid vocal expression,' the orchestra, the dances, and the choruses, 'more substantial than anywhere else in Europe.' Even the soloists found favour in his eyes, although most of them were past their prime. As Armide, Marie ('Marthe') Le Rochois met with great success. Louis Gaulard Dumesny, known as Dumesnil, took the part of Renaud, and 'fortunately he was sober!'
"By fifteen years after its creation, 'Armide' had thus become a model, a myth, the perfect example of a tragedie en musique. The work appears to have fascinated audiences from the start. Henry Baud de Sainte-Frique, a gentleman of Languedoc, a very distinguished member of the court, and a fine dancer who had taken part at Versailles in 'Le Triomphe de l'Amour' in 1681 and 'Le Carrousel des Galants Maures' in June 1685, was amazed by the attendance a week after the premier, 'there was such a large crowd that no more could enter at all. More than a hundred people were on the stage itself [...]. All the loges held ten people each, when they were already uncomfortably full with seven.' And the work continued to be an unfailing success. The enchantment scenes delighted the Siamese ambassadors when they attended the opera in January 1687. The Mercure of 1724 published an article with a detailed description of the work, including whole pages from Lecerf de La Viéville's 'Comparaison.' Quinault's heroine 'draws sighs and tears,' and Renaud's heroism in 'abandoning the princess of Damascus, despite the charms and pleasures of her company' it found admirable. Some fifteen years later Louis Racine compared 'Armide' to his father's 'Phèdre' and to Moliere's 'Le Misanthrope.' The work made such an impression that Philippe II, Duke of Orleans. who had studied with Charpentier, composed a 'Suite d'Armide, ou Jérusalem délivrée' in 1704, and Henry Desmarest wrote an opera, 'Renaud ou Ia suite d'Armide,' that was performed in 1722 as part of the celebrations for the arrival in Paris of the Infanta-Queen (Louis XV's little fiancée, Mariana Victoria of Spain).
"Only Jean-Jacques Rousseau was critical of the masterpiece. He particularly objected to Armide's aborted vengeance with the celebrated monologue 'Enfin it est en ma puissance.' In his 'Lettre sur Ia musique française' (1753) he wrote: 'To sum up my sentiment [...] in a few words, I say that if one looks upon it as singing, neither metre, nor character, nor melody is found in it; if one wishes to see it as recitative, it has neither naturalness nor expressiveness!' He found 'the ornaments of song even more ridiculous in such a situation than they usually are in French music' and 'its modulation is regular, but puerile for the same reason, pedantic. without power, without perceptible feeling.' Rameau, then at the height of his fame, responded with a counter-examination in the 1754 'Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique, et sur son principe,' aiming 'to render to Lully the justice owed to him' after Rousseau's 'ill-founded' criticism. He strongly defended the monologue as 'a masterpiece,' a true demonstration of artistry; he praised Lully's skill, his ability to 'think in grand terms' ('Lully pensait en grand'), and dismissed Rousseau's contradictions and false interpretations. Many years later, in a letter of January 1787 addressed to Friedrich Melchior. Baron von Grimm, Diderot described the libretto of 'Armide' as Quinault's masterpiece ('le chef-d'œuvre de ce poète lyrique').'Everything the lovers say radiates the intoxication and frenzy of their happiness'; and he admires Renaud for the love that he 'sacrifices only to glory'. Finally, the libretto inspired Gluck to compose his own version of it in 1777.
"The opera was immediately a huge success, but its genesis came in what was overall a very grim year for Lully. 1685 had begun very well with the first performance in January of a new tragédie en musique in collaboration with Quinault, 'Roland', which had been very well received. Several other works by the composer were premiered: 'Quare fremuerunt', which was to serve as a model of the grand motet for the four recently appointed sous-maitres of the royal chapel; 'L'Idylle stir la paix', to a text by Jean Racine, given at Sceaux; the opera-ballet 'Le Temple de la Paix', performed in October during the court's residence at Fontainebleau (the Mercure praised its dialogues as 'beautiful beyond anything we have seen of such a nature'). There was also a great deal of instrumental music, with the already-mentioned 'Carrousel des Galants Maures' at Versailles and sumptuous entertainments at Marly. However, times had changed. 'Entertainments at Versailles have given way to devotion,' reported the Dutch gazettes. Under the influence of Madame de Maintenon, the king henceforth forsook entertainments, went daily to Saint-Cyr and took an interest in religious doctrine. That was the time of the persecution of the Huguenots, the passing of the decree known as the Code Noir, expeditions against the Barbary States, tensions with the Holy Roman Empire, soon further complicated by the death of Charles II, Elector Palatine, and finally, in October, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pleasures were clearly no longer on the king's agenda. He declined the Duke of Mazarin's invitation to Rueil for the inauguration of an equestrian statue portraying him 'in French costume', for example, and his doing so at the last moment, after everything had been lavishly prepared to receive him, meant that the divertissements composed specially for the occasion by Charpentier and Brossard were never performed.
"In that rather bleak context. Lully was caught at the beginning of the year in a scandalous affair with one of the king's young 'music pages'. It became the talk of Versailles and provided a subject for street ballads of the day. Abbe Bourdaloue preached a sermon at Versailles about the dangers to youth of vice. The young castrato Atto Melani related all this to his patron, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The page in question was packed off to a monastery, and Lully was informed that he could no longer count on the king's protection. Then in the spring another scandal broke, this time at the Académie royale de musique (the Opera), where, following Lully's decision to cut off the pensions to veterans, four of the institution's finest and most eminent singers walked out, to the great displeasure of the opera-going public. Once again, the king had to step in and overrule the composer. To add further to Lully's worries, in the autumn of that year the Theatine monastery opposite the Louvre began to present regular concerts for paying audiences 'in the manner of the Roman oratories', and these, presenting as they did the most excellent singers as well as fine musicians under the maitre de musique Paolo Lorenzani (whose music was very much to the liking of Louis XIV), soon became exceedingly popular. Perceiving a threat to his monopoly, Lully attempted to put a stop to those church performances of what he deemed to be 'veritable operas'. But his efforts were in vain: the king refused to call the devotional concerts into question (La Gorce). Finally, at the end of the year (according to Lully's letter of dedication to the king, which appeared in the printed score, published shortly after the first performance of 'Armide') the composer suddenly fell dangerously ill, suffering 'the most violent pains [he had] ever endured', but he nevertheless managed to complete the work on time. Lully was no doubt hoping to obtain the king's sympathy. For Louis XIV had been unable to attend the performances because of his own great discomfort: he was about to undergo a complex and very delicate operation to treat an anal fistula.
"The earliest documents that mention 'Armide' date from May 1685, when Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau, recounts in his memoirs Quinault's meeting with Louis XIV in the apartments of Madame de Montespan. As usual, the poet took with him three different plots for the king to choose from. In the first one, set in fourth-century Gaul at the time of the Roman emperor Constantius, the great general Sylvanus was valiantly saved by Malaric, king of the Franks, from a conspiracy to discredit him. The second project. based on Ovid ('Metamorphoses'), told of the love between Cephalus and Procris and the jealousy of Aurora, goddess of the dawn (a subject that was to be taken up a few years later by Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre). Finally, borrowed from Torquato Tasso's 'Gerusalemme liberata', there was the tale of Armide, who for all her magic powers is unable to prevent Renaud, after an infatuation with pleasure and diversion, from obeying the call of duty and returning to Godefroy's camp to fulfil his military and religious obligations. Louis loved tales of chivalry and he chose the latter, thus marking a new direction in theatrical entertainments at Versailles: a move away from the image of the king as Apollo and towards the 'new Charlemagne'. Had he heard read to him in his youth 'Les Amours d'Armide', a delightful romance by Pierre Joulet, or the more recent 'Avantures de Renaud et d'Armide' by Antoine Gombaud, Chevalier de Mere? Anyway, the character of the beautiful, passionate princess appealed to him, as did the mysterious East (Damascus), the Crusades, the scenes of enchantment promised by Quinault and, above all, the presence of Renaud, a prince with whom he could identify. Furthermore, the plot held many opportunities for Lully to provide spectacular divertissements: the peoples of Damascus celebrating Armide's victory; the demons transformed into flying zephyrs; Renaud's sleep scene, with more demons in the guise of nymphs and shepherds; visions of the underworld; Hate and the Furies; then Ubalde and the Danish knight, more demons in disguise, caves and wild beasts, abysses and terrifying monsters... not forgetting the entertainments provided by the Pleasures and the 'fortunate lovers'.
"The libretto was not completed until the end of 1685, when Quinault submitted it for reading to the Dauphin and Dauphine. However, Lully had worked on the music while 'Le Temple de la paix' was in performance. 'Armide' was to have been given at Versailles, but such was the success of 'Le Temple de Ia paix' that it received additional performances in December 1685 and January 1686, which delayed the opening of the 'Ballet de la jeunesse' (Dancourt and Lalande) until 28 January. Then that in turn ran until 25 February, by which time it was in alternation with Henry Desmarest's opera 'Endymion'. As the Mercure mentioned: since the delay prevented 'Armide' from being performed at court, it was finally presented in Paris at the Théâtre Royal de Musique (Lully's public theatre in the Palais-Royal) on 15 February 1686.
"'Armide' was included among the 'illustrious women' of Madeleine de Scudery: 'If we consider [Armide] from one angle, she is an Enchantress, she is artful; she is a cruel person; she is a young woman who has renounced the modesty of her sex; and in short, if we wished to paint her portrait thus, it would most certainly be a rather unattractive one: but it is also true that it would not be a very good likeness. If, on the other hand, we see her as a Princess, who has acted only as a Woman Warrior and a Lover, all her charms will be innocent; all her artifices will bring her glory; her cruelty will be fair: her modesty spotless, and our portrait will no doubt be a good likeness, and (unless I am mistaken) it will not be at all unpleasant.'" (Jean Duron. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Les Talens Lyriques, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Christophe Rousset, Marie-Adeline Henry, Antonio Figueroa, Judith van Wanroij, Mari-Claude Chappuis, Marc Mauillon, Douglas Williams, Cyril Auvity, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Etienne Bazola
1.1. Prologue: Ouverture
1.2. Prologue: 'Tout Doit Céder Dans L'univers'
1.3. Prologue: 'D'une Égale Tendresse'
1.4. Prologue: Entrée
1.5. Prologue: Menuet
1.6. Prologue: Gavotte
1.7. Prologue: 'Suivons Notre Héros, Que Rien Ne Nous Sépare'
1.8. Prologue: Entrée
1.9. Prologue: Menuet
1.10. Prologue: 'Que Dans Le Temple De Mémoire'
1.11. Prologue: Ouverture (Reprise)
1.12. Acte I, Scène I: 'Dans Un Jour De Triomphe, Au Milieu Des Plaisirs'
1.13. Acte I, Scène I: 'Je Ne Triomphe Pas Du Plus Vaillant De Tous'
1.14. Acte I, Scène II: 'Armide, Que Le Sang Qui M'unit Avec Vous'
1.15. Acte I, Scène III: Entrée
1.16. Acte I, Scène III: 'Armide Est Encore Plus Aimable'
1.17. Acte I, Scène III: 'Suivons Armide Et Chantons Sa Victoire'/'Que La Douceur D'un Triomphe Est Extrême'
1.18. Acte I, Scène IV: 'Ô Ciel! Ô Disgrâce Cruelle!'
1.19. Acte I, Scène IV: 'Poursuivons Jusqqu'au Trépas'
1.20. Acte I, Scène IV: Entracte
1.21. Acte II, Scène I: 'Invincible Héros, C'est Par Votre Courage'
1.22. Acte II, Scène II: 'Arrêtons‐nous Ici, C'est Dans Ce Lieu Fatal'
1.23. Acte II, Scène III: 'Plus J'observe Ces Lieux, Et Plus Je Les Admire'
1.24. Acte II, Scène IV: 'Au Temps Heureux Où L'on Sait Plaire'
1.25. Acte II, Scène IV: 'Ah! Quelle Erreur! Quelle Folie!'
1.26. Acte II, Scène IV: Premier Air
1.27. Acte II, Scène IV: Second Air
1.28. Acte II, Scène IV: 'On S'étonnerait Moins Que La Saison Nouvelle'
1.29. Acte II, Scène IV: 'Ah! Quelle Erreur! Quelle Folie!'
1.30. Acte II, Scène V: 'Enfin Il Est En Ma Puissance'
1.31. Acte II, Scène V: Entr'acte
2.1. Acte III, Scène I: 'Ah! Si La Liberté Me Doit Être Ravie'
2.2. Acte III, Scène II: 'Que Ne Peut Point Votre Art?'
2.3. Acte III, Scène III: 'Venez, Venez, Haine Implacable'
2.4. Acte III, Scène IV: 'Je Réponds À Tes Vœux, Ta Voix S'est Fait Entendre'
2.5. Acte III, Scène IV: Entrée
2.6. Acte III, Scène IV: 'Amour, Sors Pour Jamais, Sors D'un Cœur Qui Te Chasse'
2.7. Acte III, Scène IV: Air
2.8. Acte III, Scène IV: 'Sors, Sors Du Sein D'Armide, Brise Ta Chaîne'
2.9. Acte III, Scène IV: Entr'acte
2.10. Acte IV, Scène I: 'Nous Ne Trouvons Partout Que Des Gouffres Ouverts'
2.11. Acte IV, Scène II: 'Voici La Charmante Retraite'
2.12. Acte IV, Scène II: Gavotte
2.13. Acte IV, Scène II: Canaries
2.14. Acte IV, Scène II: 'Allons, Qui Vous Retient Encore?'
2.15. Acte IV, Scène III: 'Je Tourne En Vain Les Yeux De Toutes Parts'
2.16. Acte IV, Scène IV: 'D'où Vient Que Vous Vous Détournez'
2.17. Acte IV, Scène IV: 'Que Devient L'objet Qui M'enflamme?'
2.18. Acte IV, Scène IV: Entr'acte
2.19. Acte V, Scène I: 'Armide, Voous M'allez Quitter!'
2.20. Acte V, Scène I: Passacaille
2.21. Acte V, Scène II: 'Les Plaisirs Ont Choisi Pour Asile'
2.22. Acte V, Scène II: 'Allez, Éloignez‐vous De Moi'
2.23. Acte V, Scène II: Prélude
2.24. Acte V, Scène III: 'Il Est Seul; Profitons D'un Temps Si Précieux'
2.25. Acte V, Scène IV: 'Renaud! Ciel! Ô Mortelle Peine!'
2.26. Acte V, Scène V: 'Le Perfide Renaud Me Fuit'
2.27. Acte V, Scène V: Prélude
