Armida

Armida (Hob. XXVIII/12) is a 1784 opera (dramma eroico) in three acts by Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, set to an Italian-language libretto taken from Antonio Tozzi's 1775 opera Rinaldo, as amended by , and ultimately based on the story of Armida and Rinaldo in Torquato Tasso's poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). Libretto The text of Nunziato Porta's libretto for Haydn's Armida was principally taken from Antonio Tozzi's opera Rinaldo, first performed during Ascension 1775 at the Teatro San Salvatore in Venice with a libretto by an unknown adapter that was chiefly based on an Armida written by and set to music by Pasquale Anfossi for Turin in 1770 (see List of operas by Pasquale Anfossi) and Antonio Sacchini for Milan in 1772 (see Armida (Sacchini)). Rinaldo also incorporated elements from Niccolò Jommelli's opera Armida abbandonata, first performed in 1770 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples with a libretto by , who had adapted it from his earlier drama based on Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata. Jommelli's opera featured ballet, chorus, and machine spectacle. A recitative in Act 3, relating Rinaldo's visit to the enchanted forest of Armida, was set by several other composers before it was included in Haydn's opera. Rinaldo also incorporated material from Giovanni Bertati's libretto for Johann Gottlieb Naumann's 1773 opera Armida that was also used in Haydn's version. Performance history The first performance of Haydn's Armida was 26 February 1784, and it went on to receive 54 performances from 1784 to 1788 at the Esterháza Court Theatre. During the composer's lifetime it was also performed in Pressburg, Budapest, Turin and Vienna. Haydn himself regarded Armida as his finest opera. Armida then disappeared from the general operatic repertoire; it was revived in 1968 in a concert rendition in Cologne, and later a production in Bern. The United States premiere of the opera was given at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, New Hampshire, with the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra for the Monadnock Music Festival in September 1981. Sarah Reese sang the title role; the director Peter Sellars set the production during the Vietnam War. Roles