About the work
Armida is a dramma per musica in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, drawing on episodes from Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata. The opera was written for the reopening of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, which had burned down the previous year, and was premiered in November 1817.
Plot
The sorceress Armida and her uncle Idraote plan to weaken the crusader army besieging Jerusalem: Armida poses as a dispossessed ruler asking for help, and numerous knights fall under her spell. Rinaldo, the army's elected leader, falls genuinely in love with her, recalling an earlier encounter between them. His companions Carlo and Ubaldo use magic to recall him to duty; Rinaldo leaves Armida, who turns to vengeance and vanishes in a dragon-drawn chariot.
Cultural significance
Written for Isabella Colbran, the title role is regarded as one of Rossini's most demanding and coloratura-heavy soprano parts; unusually, the opera also calls for six tenor roles. It largely disappeared from the stage after its own era and was not rediscovered until the late twentieth century.