• Jean-Baptiste Lully. Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. 1686.
• Libretto by Philippe Quinault, after an episode in Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata.
• First performance at the Paris Opéra on 15th February 1686.

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CHARACTERS

La Gloire (Glory)	soprano
La Sagesse (Wisdom)	soprano
Armide, a magician, niece of Hidraot	soprano
Renaud, a knight	haute-contre
Phénice, confidante of Armide	soprano
Sidonie, confidante of Armide	soprano
Hidraot, magician, King of Damascus	baritone
Aronte, guard of Armide’s captive knights	tenor
Artémidore, a knight	tenor
La Haine (Hatred)	tenor
Ubalde, a knight	baritone
The Danish Knight, companion of Ubalde	haute-contre
A Demon in the form of a Water Nymph	soprano
A Demon in the form of the Danish Knight’s beloved Lucinde	soprano
A Demon in the form of Ubalde’s beloved Mélisse	soprano

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In the prologue the allegorical figures of Glory and Wisdom proclaim their power over their hero, the unnamed Louis XIV, who has called upon them to see the conflict of love and duty resolved by Renaud (Rinaldo). Armide has taken prisoner most of the crusaders, but loves Renaud, who has not fallen into her power and now succeeds in setting his comrades free. He is lured away by Armide, who would kill him as he sleeps, but is, instead, prevented by the power of love. Renaud’s comrades attempt to find him, making their way through the snares that delay them in the desert. In the end they find the hero, in Armide’s magic palace, and when the spell is broken, he leaves, allowing Armide her final rage and despair, before herself departing in her flying chariot.

Lully and Quinault’s last tragedy allows the usual place for spectacle and for ballet, with a series of divertissements and the intervention of monsters and demons, as well as the transformation scene, as Armide’s palace is finally destroyed. The work represents Lully and Quinault at the very height of their powers.