About the work
Antonín Dvořák wrote his final opera between March 1902 and August 1903 to a libretto by Jaroslav Vrchlický, who had first proposed the subject from Torquato Tasso's epic 'La Gerusalemme liberata' some fourteen years earlier. František Picka conducted the premiere on 25 March 1904 at the National Theatre in Prague, weeks before Dvořák's death on 1 May 1904.
Plot
The sorceress Armida, daughter of the king of Damascus, is sent to seduce and destroy the Christian knight Rinald during the First Crusade but falls genuinely in love with him. After a series of magical trials and Rinald's return to the Christian faith, he unknowingly kills the veiled Armida, who dies in his arms.
Cultural significance
Undermined by weak staging and direction, the premiere was a failure despite praise for the music, and the opera never entered the standard repertoire. Prague's National Theatre did not stage it again between 1987 and a 2023 revival.