LULLY Armide

2 CDs
Jean-Baptiste
LULLY
The Tragedy of
Armide
Houtzeel • Getchell
Loup • Sharp
Monoyios • Dubrow
Boutté • Perry
McCulloch • McCredie
Opera Lafayette
Ryan Brown
Jean-Baptiste
LULLY
(1632-1687)
The Tragedy of Armide
Libretto by Philippe Quinault (1635-1688)
Edition for the Œuvres complètes by Lois Rosow
Publisher: Verlag Olms, Hildesheim • Distribution: Barenreiter
Armide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephanie Houtzeel, Mezzo-soprano
Renaud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Getchell, Tenor
Hidraot; Ubalde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . François Loup, Bass
Artémidore; La Haine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Sharp, Baritone
Phénice; Lucinde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ann Monoyios, Soprano
Sidonie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Miriam Dubrow, Soprano
Le Chevalier danois; Un Amant fortuné . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tony Boutté, Tenor
Aronte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Darren Perry, Baritone
Une Bergère héroïque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adria McCulloch, Soprano
Une Naïade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tara McCredie, Soprano
Opera Lafayette • Ryan Brown
Opera Lafayette would like to thank The Florence Gould Foundation, The Marpat Foundation,
Areva, Inc., Pernod Ricard USA, Jerald and Alice Clark, Bill and Cari Gradison,
and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center for their help in making this recording possible.
Opera Lafayette is also deeply grateful to Marie-Hélène Forget for her extraordinary efforts
to help bring music of the French Baroque to the United States.
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CD 1
1
Ouverture
55:33
2:18
Act I
Scene 1
2 Ritournelle
“Dans un jour de triomphe”
(Phénice, Sidonie, Armide)
3 Prélude
“Un songe affreux”
(Armide, Sidonie)
Scene 2
Prélude
“Armide, que le sang qui m’unit avec vous”
(Hidraot, Armide)
4
Scene 3
Marche
“Armide est encor plus aimable”
(Hidraot, Chœur)
6 Sarabande: Rondeau
“ Suivons Armide, et chantons sa Victoire”
(Phénice, Chœur)
“Que la douceur d’un triomphe est extrême”
(Sidonie, Chœur)
5
Scene 4
7 “O Ciel! O disgrace cruelle!”
(Aronte, Armide, Hidraot, Chœur)
8
3
Entr’acte
5:53
Act II
Scene 1
9 “Invincible Héros, c’est par votre courage”
(Artémidore, Renaud)
Scene 2
0 Prélude
“Arrêtons-nous ici; c’est dans ce lieu fatal”
(Hidraot, Armide)
4:14
3:59
2:13
Scene 3
Prélude
“Plus j’observe ces lieux, et plus je les admire”
(Renaud)
!
6:03
4:40
3:32
5:49
1:52
0:41
Scene 4
@ “Au temps heureux où l’on sçait plaire”
7:48
(Une Naïade)
Prélude
“Ah! quelle erreur! quelle folie!”
(Chœur)
Premier Air
Second Air, “On s’étonnerait moins que la saison nouvelle”
(Une Bergère héroïque)
First Air
(Chœur)
Scene 5
Prélude
“Enfin il est en ma puissance”
(Armide)
#
4:40
Entr’acte
(Marche)
1:50
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CD 2
66:16
Act III
Scene 2
7 “Voici la charmante Retraite”
(Lucinde, Chœur)
Gavotte
Canaries
“Allons, qui vous retient encore?”
(Ubalde, Le Chevalier danois, Lucinde, Chœur)
1
Scene 1
Prélude
“Ah! si la liberté me doit être ravie”
(Armide)
2:22
2
Scene 2
“Que ne peut point votre art?”
(Phénice, Sidonie, Armide)
8:44
8
Scene 3
Prélude
“Venez, Haine implacable”
(Armide)
1:09
9
Scene 4
Prélude
“Je réponds à tes vœux”
(La Haine, Chœur)
Premier Air
“Amour, sors pour jamais”
Second Air
“Sors du sein d’Armide”
(La Haine, Armide)
8:00
Entr’acte (Second Air)
0:37
3
4
5
Scene 3
Prélude
“Je tourne en vain”
(Le Chevalier danois, Ubalde)
Entr’acte (Air)
7:49
1:37
0:29
Act V
Scene 1
0 Ritournelle
“Armide, vous m’allez quitter?”
(Renaud, Armide)
Scene 2
Passacaille “Les Plaisirs ont choisi pour asile”
(Un Amant fortuné, Chœur)
“Allez, éloignez-vous de moi”
(Renaud)
!
Act IV
Scene 1
6 Prélude
5:33
“Nous ne trouvons par tout que des Gouffres ouverts”
(Le Chevalier danois, Ubalde)
Air
Scene 3
@ Ritournelle
“Il est seul”
(Ubalde, Renaud, Le Chevalier danois)
7:17
9:28
2:33
Scene 4
# “Renaud? Ciel! O mortelle peine!”
(Armide, Renaud, Le Chevalier danois, Ubalde)
5:51
Scene 5
Prélude
“Le perfide Renaud me fuit”
(Armide)
Prélude, Symphonie
4:44
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Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
The Tragedy of Armide
Lully’s Armide had a rich and varied performance
history at the Paris Opéra during the eighty years
following its début in 1686. Those in charge of the
productions, while holding Lully and his librettist
Quinault in the highest esteem and responding with
deep enthusiasm to this extraordinary opera, did not
hesitate to alter the score and libretto in ways they
thought likely to ensure the success of the work.
Performers today owe an immense debt of gratitude to
scholars who, like Lois Rosow in the case of Armide,
have created editions and done research which carefully
reconstruct for us the original circumstances of a
musical première and provide us with details on the
subsequent historical treatments of these works.
For our recording, we have departed from the
original 1686 version of Armide in some places. The
changes reflect practical concerns, the differences
inherent in listening to a recording versus seeing a
production, and dramatic issues addressed in the work’s
own eighteenth century performance history.
The first important historical changes in the
performance practice of the work centered around the
much disputed relevance of Act IV and in particular its
scene iv, during which the knight Ubalde is tempted by
Mélisse, mirroring the previous scenes in which Le
Chevalier danois is tempted by Lucinde. Lecerf de la
Viéville declared in 1705 that “one must cut” this scene,
and it was eliminated from productions as early as 1697.
Rebel and Francoeur, inspecteurs généraux of the Opéra
in the mid- eighteenth century, cut from a point in scene
iii, though they also lengthened the previous
divertissement. Our choice was simply to go from the
third air of scene iii directly to the entr’acte before Act
V, moving smoothly from one triple metre in C major to
another. This addresses some of the larger dramatic
concerns of repetitiveness within Act IV and reduces the
extensive recitative which would otherwise both end
Act IV and begin Act V.
We slightly shortened the divertissement in Act II,
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scene iv, by deleting one of the Bergère’s airs. In the
eighteenth century Rebel and Francoeur also made
adjustments to this scene, though somewhat differently
and in the context of other stylistic changes. In the
dances of various divertissements and entr’actes we
have eliminated several repeats, most significantly in
the Act I Sarabandes which, seen fully choreographed in
a stage production, would probably prove mesmerizing
and give a grand symmetry to the scene, but seem too
repetitive for a recording alone.
The final but largest change is that we move directly
from the Ouverture to the drama of Act I, suppressing
the Prologue, a paean to Louis XIV featuring the
allegorical characters of Wisdom and Glory.
Historically the Prologue was only dropped in 1761, at
which time artistic and political sensibilities had
changed considerably. Still, the public seemed
enthusiastic for this dramatic tale, and in 1777 Gluck
produced his own Armide without a prologue, which
otherwise followed Quinault’s libretto almost exactly
and went on to have as impressive a performance
history in the nineteenth century as Lully’s version did
in the eighteenth century. Both historically and in our
own version we are reminded that each generation of
performers bequeaths something of its experience to the
next, and that interpreting masterpieces such as Armide
is a living, transformative experience.
Ryan Brown
Armide: Lully’s ultimate triumph
Armide represents the culmination of the long and
fruitful career of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), the
most powerful musician at the court of Louis XIV and
the first important composer of French opera. Though
not his final composition, Armide was his last complete
tragédie en musique and the last work he wrote in
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collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault. It was an
instant and enduring success: a crowd-pleaser at its
initial production and a perennial favorite of audiences
and critics in the eighteenth century.
The première, originally intended for the royal court
at Versailles but repeatedly postponed because both
Lully and the king were ill, took place in Paris on 15th
February 1686, at Lully’s public theatre in the PalaisRoyal. A week later Henry Baud de Sainte-Frique
described the event evocatively in a letter to a Tuscan
court official in Florence: “There was such a large
crowd that no more could enter at all, and more than 100
people were on the stage at a louis each. All the loges
held ten people each. You know that seven is enough to
fill them and is uncomfortably crowded. The
amphitheatre and the parterre and the gallery were so
jumbled that the size of the crowd there could not be
taken in without astonishment. They claim that Lully
received 10,000 francs that day.” The Mercure galant
reported that “the words were found very worthy of
their author, which goes without saying since he excels
in works of this nature. Everyone was charmed by the
orchestra and the music. The scenery seemed grand and
new, and especially the theatre that breaks apart. It is the
invention of Monsieur Bérain, designer of the Cabinet
du Roy. There were loud exclamations over the beauty
of all of the parts that make up the fifth act of this
opera.” (The “theatre that breaks apart”, an image
commemorated in the frontispiece of the published
libretto, was Armide’s magical palace, destroyed by
demons at her command at the end of the opera.) When
Lully published the score later that year, he began his
letter of dedication to the king by alluding to the
scheduling difficulties at Versailles: “Of all the
tragedies that I have set to music, here is the one with
which the public has seemed the most satisfied. It is a
show that draws crowds, and none seen before now has
received more applause. Nevertheless, of all my works
it is the one I deem the least happy since it has not yet
had the advantage of appearing before Your
Majesty….” Louis apparently never saw Armide. It
seems that Lully’s involvement in a sex scandal the
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previous winter, coupled with the general atmosphere of
austerity and religiosity at court in the late 1680s, was
enough to make the king distance himself from his
formerly favourite composer and from the Opéra in
Paris.
Yet Louis XIV had selected the subject for the
libretto: “Quinault took three opera stories for the
coming winter to the king at Madame de
Montespan’s…. The king found all three to his liking
and chose that of Armide.” While most of Quinault’s
tragédies en musique have mythological plots, taken
mainly from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the last three
(Amadis, Roland, Armide) present tales of medieval
chivalry, taken from the romances of Montalvo, Ariosto,
and Tasso. On the one hand, this shift toward tales of the
Crusades is understandable: after the queen’s death in
1683, the king had grown increasingly preoccupied by
religion and morality. On the other, the stories told in
these operas represent archetypes familiar from classical
mythology: the enchantress Armide and warrior Renaud
could just as well be Circe and Ulysses. In any case,
Torquato Tasso’s epic Gerusalemme liberata, the
source for the story of Armida and Rinaldo, was well
known and popular—it had been translated into French
several times between 1595 and 1671—and the Armida
tale in particular had been dramatized in important
French court ballets earlier in the century.
In fact, the story lent itself well to political allegory.
The opera begins with an allegorical prologue (not on
this recording), praising the wise and glorious rule of the
king and referring obliquely to a “monster” that he had
vanquished. The political event uppermost in the minds
of Parisians at the beginning of 1686 was the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes on 22nd October 1685, the climax
of years of persecution of the Huguenots. Thus, the
“monster” was Protestantism, demonized here as in all
officially approved literature. Metaphorically this theme
may be read in the tragedy itself, the virtuous European
Crusader Renaud symbolizing Catholic France and the
seductive Middle Eastern princess-magician Armide
symbolizing Protestant heresy.
Yet Renaud is not the principal protagonist of the
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opera. Against the backdrop of conventional royal
allegory, the heroine Armide wages a fierce internal
battle between love and vengeance, and it is her story
that dominates the plot. Discussing the brilliant singingactress Marie (“Marthe”) Le Rochois, who created the
rôle, the 18th-century biographer Evrard Titon du Tillet
wrote, “What rapture to see her in the fifth scene of the
second act …, dagger in hand, ready to pierce the breast
of Renaud, asleep on a bed of greenery! Fury animated
her at the sight of him, love came and seized her heart;
the one and the other affected her in turn. Pity and
tenderness followed, and love was the winner.” JeanLaurent Lecerf de la Viéville, writing in 1705 about a
revival that had taken place around a decade after the
première, remarked, “When I picture la Rochois, that
little woman who was no longer young, capped with
black hair, and armed with a black cane with a ribbon
the colour of fire, moving about that great stage, which
she filled almost by herself, and drawing from her chest
from time to time marvellous bursts of song, I assure
you that I shiver again.” In the end, neither Armide’s
beauty and power nor the army of demons at her
command (who make several appearances disguised as
gentle pastoral figures) can save her from herself.
According to Lecerf, after the final curtain, “the
spectator, filled with passion that has grown until this
final moment … returns home profoundly moved in
spite of himself, dreaming, chagrined at Armide’s
unhappiness.”
Lully’s music is characterized by the artful
arrangement of linked and nested segments, much like
the plantings in a formal French garden. Miniature
songs and short instrumental introductions mingle with
passages of melodious, expressive recitative to form
large-scale patterned scene structures. The five acts
were performed without break, with short musical
entr’actes accompanying spectacular changes of
scenery. The ballet episodes in each act, whether civic
ceremony, scene of pastoral enchantment, or the
horrifying ritual of Hatred and her followers, brought
troupes of performers together in communal action, the
dancers representing the bodies of the collective
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characters and the chorus representing their voices.
Twice the libretto calls for elaborate stage machinery: in
the entr’acte connecting Acts II and III, during which
demons disguised as gentle zephyrs carry Armide and
the sleeping Renaud away from the pastoral riverbank;
and at the end of the opera, where Armide’s magical
palace crumbles to the ground. Throughout the opera the
orchestra paints character and mood—as in the
murmuring flutes and muted strings of Renaud’s
enchanted sleep, the wide leaps and jagged rhythms of
Armide’s entrance with dagger in hand, the growling
repetitive bass line of Hatred’s ceremony, and the
hypnotic, seductive continuous variations over an
endlessly cycling harmonic pattern in the extended
dance (a passacaille) in Act V.
The edition is based mainly on the score printed
under Lully’s direction in 1686, with additional
information drawn from two manuscript violin parts
(the only parts to survive from the original orchestral
materials), the libretto printed for the première, and a
group of vocal and instrumental parts that survive from
early 18th-century productions of Armide in Paris. For
this performance editorial percussion has been added.
Lois Rosow
Portions of this commentary first appeared in J.-B.
Lully, Oeuvres complètes, ser. 3, vol. 14 (Hildesheim,
2003); reproduced by permission of the Association
Lully and Georg Olms Verlag.
Synopsis
Act I: Armide, a warrior princess and sorceress, is
praised by her confidantes Phénice and Sidonie for her
victory over the Crusaders whom she has taken captive.
However, Armide expresses her anger and frustration
because she has not been able to prevail over Renaud,
the most valiant of the Christian knights. Armide’s
uncle, Hidraot, urges his niece to choose a husband, but
she declares that were she to yield to love she would
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only consider someone who could conquer Renaud.
Amidst the celebration of Armide’s victory, Aronte,
who was guarding the prisoners, enters mortally
wounded, announcing the prisoners’ rescue by Renaud.
Armide and Hidroat swear that such an enemy will not
escape their vengeance.
Act II: Artémidore, one of the knights rescued by
Renaud, praises his rescuer and asks him to flee the
place where Armide rules. Renaud assures Artémidore
that his heart is safe from Armide’s enchantment.
Hidraot and Armide conjure up demons to put Renaud
to sleep. The hero admires his surroundings and sits
down to rest. The demons, in the shape of nymphs and
shepherds, weave their spells over Renaud. Armide
enters, intending to kill Renaud as he sleeps. Instead,
she is overcome by love for him, and decides that her
triumph, thanks to her spells, would be to bring Renaud
into her power and have him love her. She asks the
demons to transform themselves into zephyrs to carry
her and Renaud far away.
Act III: Armide deplores the conquest of her heart by
Renaud. Phénice and Sidonie urge Armide to abandon
herself to love, but Armide is troubled because, while
she is in love with him, he is bound to her only by her
spells. Armide invokes the spirit of Hate to rescue her
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from her love for Renaud. Hate and her followers
perform a powerful invocation, but Armide cannot give
up Renaud, and she sends Hate away. Hate curses
Armide, condemning her to the punishment of endless
love.
Act IV: Two of Renaud’s companions, Ubalde and the
Danish Knight, are searching for their hero to rescue
him from Armide. They manage to resist the
temptations and dangerous delights set in their path by
Armide.
Act V: Armide and Renaud declare their passion but
Armide is haunted by a dark foreboding, and wishes to
consult the Underworld. She retires and leaves the
Pleasures and a troop of Fortunate Lovers to amuse
Renaud. In her absence, Ubalde and the Danish Knight
discover Renaud and break Armide’s spell. She returns
in time to confront Renaud as he leaves, imploring him
to take her with him as a captive if he will not remain as
her lover. For Renaud, Duty and Glory demand that he
leave her, but he pities her fate. Armide, left alone,
laments her love and the horror of her torment, and
declares that the hope of vengence is all that remains to
her. Armide then bids the demons destroy her enchanted
palace, hoping to bury forever her cursed love.
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Stephanie Houtzeel
Nominated one of the best up-and-coming singers of 2003 by Opernwelt magazine for her
performance of the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, the mezzo-soprano Stephanie
Houtzeel has appeared at the Zurich, Antwerp, Graz and St. Gallen opera houses. Her operatic
career has taken her to Graz and Linz in Austria, as well as to Germany, where she has sung a
number of major rôles. Also active in baroque repertoire, she has sung the title- rôle in Handel’s
Ariodante and Galatea in Acis and Galatea with the Opera da Camera Linz. She has toured with
the Collegium Vocale Gent, singing the alto solos in cantatas and Masses of Bach, under Philippe
Herreweghe, and appeared regularly with the Four Nations Ensemble of New York. Her first
recording of Handel cantatas, with the Bouts Baroque Ensemble, received high praise from
several publications. Since her 1997 recital début at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, she has appeared in concert
series including the New York Festival of Song, Chamber Series of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Styriarte
Graz, International Bruckner Festival and Great Performers Series of Lincoln Center. She has appeared as a concert
soloist under conductors including Dennis Russell Davies, Philippe Jordan, Pinchas Steinberg, Eric Ericsson and
Claus Peter Flor. In January 2004 she made her début at the Vienna Musikverein as soloist in Mahler’s Third
Symphony.
Robert Getchell
The tenor Robert Getchell began singing at the University of Massachusetts, where he studied
French and Spanish literature. In France he studied French baroque music at the Centre de
Musique Baroque de Versailles and continued his studies with Margreet Honig at the Amsterdam
Conservatory, specialising in early music interpretation with Howard Crook. In Europe Robert
Getchell has performed frequently with many ensembles, including Les Talens Lyriques, Musica
Antiqua Köln, Le Parlement de Musique, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, l’Ensemble Pierre Robert,
Al Ayre Español, and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, and is a frequent soloist in the Theatre and
Opera of Rouen. On the operatic stage he has appeared in various baroque operas, including
Lully’s Roland with René Jacobs, Lully’s Persée, A.C. Destouche’s Semiramis and Purcell’s The
Fairy Queen with Christophe Rousset. Robert Getchell has been invited to sing in various festivals in Europe such
as the festivals of Versailles, Ambronay, Fribourg, Beaune and Utrecht. He has recorded numerous CDs with works
from composers from Charpentier and Mozart to Schubert, Mendelssohn, Poulenc and more recently Sacchini with
Opera Lafayette.
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François Loup
The bass François Loup, singer, actor and stage director, made his international début at the 1974
Spoleto Festival at the invitation of Gian Carlo Menotti. His reputation rapidly grew and he first
performed in Washington, DC in 1981. He has performed with the Metropolitan Opera of New
York since 1992, where he has given more than a hundred performances in major rôles, including
Bartolo (Mozart and Rossini), Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Sulpice in The Daughter of the
Regiment, the Sacristan in Tosca, Benoît and Alcindoro in La Bohème, Frank in Die Fledermaus
and the Majordomo in Strauss’s Capriccio. He has performed with the Florentine Opera, New
Israeli Opera, Dallas Opera, Canadian Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric
Opera of Chicago, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Washington Opera, Opera
Bastille of Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and in cities all over the world including Lyon, Nantes, Strasbourg,
Rouen, Toulouse, Madrid, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Prague, Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence,
Rome, Spoleto and Bologna. He has recorded for Erato, CBS, Philips, Accord and NVC. He is an associate
professor at the University of Maryland.
William Sharp
The baritone William Sharp has earned a reputation as a singer of great versatility and continues
to win critical acclaim for his work in concert, recital, opera and recordings. He has appeared
throughout the United States with major orchestras and music festivals, including performances
with the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National
Symphony, New Jersey Symphony and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He is a frequent participant
in Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival and
Marlboro Music Festival. He has made numerous appearances with the Bach Aria Group, Handel
and Haydn Society, and Maryland Handel Festival. A highly respected recording artist, William
Sharp was nominated for a 1989 Grammy award for Best Classical Vocal Performance for his
recording of works by American composers (New World Records). His recording for Koch of Leonard Bernstein’s
Arias and Barcarolles with the New York Festival of Song received a 1990 Grammy award. Other recordings
include the songs of Marc Blitzstein with The New York Festival of Song (Koch), and the Mass in B minor, with the
Bach Choir of Bethlehem (Dorian). William Sharp is the winner of the 1987 Carnegie Hall International American
Music Competition.
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Ann Monoyios
The soprano Ann Monoyios concertizes extensively throughout Europe and North
America in a wide variety of repertory including opera, oratorio, chamber music and
recitals. In concert engagements she has collaborated with the leading Baroque specialists
of the world including Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen, Christopher Hogwood, John
Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Reinhard Goebel and Nicholas McGegan. She has
been featured soloist on tours in Europe and the Far East with Tafelmusik Orchestra and
can be heard as soprano soloist on their recordings of Haydn sacred works for Sony
Vivarte, from which the recording of The Creation has been singled out for particularly
high praise. She has been guest soloist with many symphony orchestras in North America, among them Montreal,
Houston, San Francisco, San Antonio, Edmonton and Calgary, as well as the National Arts Center Orchestra in
Ottawa. As a baroque specialist, Ann Monoyios has appeared throughout Europe in numerous productions of
baroque operas. Her most interesting collaborations have been performing Lully’s Atys at the Paris Opéra with
William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, Handel’s Alcina with Jos van Immerseel in Antwerp and Purcell’s The
Fairy Queen conducted by Trevor Pinnock in Lisbon. She can be heard on many record labels, among them
Deutsche Grammophon Archiv, Sony Vivarte, EMI, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Erato. Her favourite recordings
include Bach’s St Matthew Passion with John Eliot Gardiner for Deutsche Grammophon and Monteverdi’s Vespers
of 1610, also with John Eliot Gardiner.
Miriam Dubrow
Miriam Dubrow, soprano, began her vocal training in Philadelphia with Margaret Poyner of the
Curtis Institute and Julianne Baird. She continued her studies on scholarship at the Peabody
Conservatory working with Phyllis Bryn-Julson and Wayne Conner. She has also won several
singing fellowships, including invitations to the Tanglewood Music Center and the Israel Vocal
Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, where she performed a series of Lieder concerts with the renowned
pianist/conductor Martin Isepp and under sponsorship by the British Council. Proving herself a
dynamic interpreter of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music, ranging from ballads to opera
and oratorio, she has performed throughout Europe, Mexico and Israel as well as across the
United States. She performs extensively in Washington, DC, and appearances include a featured
segment on the Mark Steiner Show on National Public Radio, a recital at the Kennedy Center and the French
Embassy and Corcoran Gallery as Thalie in Rameau’s Platée with The Violins of Lafayette.
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Tony Boutté
Tony Boutté, tenor, enjoys a growing career as a performer of music from the Baroque to the
present. He has appeared with three distinguished European conductors, William Christie of Les
Arts Florissants, Christophe Rousset of Les Talens Lyriques and Hervé Niquet of Concert
Spirituel. He has sung with many of North America’s leading ensembles, including Opera
Lafayette, New York Collegium, Washington Bach Consort, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and
Tafelmusik. Boutté has also performed at the Salzburg Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe
Opera, Bard Festival, Skylight Opera Theater, Schleswig-Holstein Festival and Tage Alte Muzik
Regensberg. He has created rôles in six world premières, including Michael Gordon’s Chaos at
The Kitchen (New York City). Tony Boutté has recorded Bach’s St John Passion with the
Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, Carbon Copy Building with Bang on a Can and has sung in documentaries for the
BBC and PBS. Other recordings include one with Julianne Baird of music from the Jane Austen Songbook, and
music by Purcell with Brandywine Baroque. His appearances include a Canadian tour with Les Violons du Roy,
Handel’s Acis and Galatea in Ithaca, and rôles in Lully’s Acis et Galatée and Sacchini’s Oedipe à Colone with
Opera Lafayette.
Adria McCulloch
Photo: Phil Crozier
Acclaimed by the press, the Canadian soprano Adria McCulloch holds a Masters degree from the
Maryland Opera Studio, where she performed the rôles of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and the
title-rôle in Gluck’s Armide. She has collaborated extensively with Opera Lafayette since 2006.
Photo: Matt Mendelsohn
Tara McCredie
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Mezzo-soprano Tara McCredie holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Catholic University of
America, where she performed the rôles of Annina in La traviata, Mrs Nolan in The Medium and
Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. She has also sung Charlotte in Werther and La Haine in
Gluck’s Armide with the Maryland Opera Studio. She is a frequent soloist in the Washington, DC
area.
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Opera Lafayette
Opera Lafayette is an American period instrument ensemble dedicated to performances of seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century operas, particularly the French repertoire. Founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Ryan Brown,
Opera Lafayette has won critical acclaim and a loyal following for its concert and staged opera productions with
well-known American and international artists. Its collaborations with The New York Baroque Dance Company, the
leading baroque dance group in this country, have produced world première musical and dance performances. Opera
Lafayette records for Naxos. Its début recording of the 1774 Paris version of Gluck’s Orphée et Euridice was
released internationally in 2005, followed by Sacchini’s Oedipe à Colone in 2006 and Rameau Opera Arias for
Haute-Contre with tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt in 2007. With the 2007-2008 season’s performances and recording
of Zélindor, Opera Lafayette launched a three-year project to present modern American premières of three
eighteenth-century French operas in Washington, D.C. and in New York City at the Rose Theater, home of Jazz at
Lincoln Center, and also to make première recordings of these operas. Opera Lafayette was founded by Ryan Brown
in 1995 as The Violins of Lafayette, producing a series of chamber concerts in the Salon Doré, an eighteenthcentury drawing room in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The ensemble quickly established a
reputation for excellence, giving particular attention to opera in both semi-staged and concert performances. The
newly-named Opera Lafayette was presented on the 2001-2002 inaugural season of the Clarice Smith Performing
Arts Center at the University of Maryland, and has gone on to offer works by Gluck, Handel, Rameau, Mozart,
Charpentier and Lully.
Orchestra
Ryan Brown, Conductor
and Artistic Director
Violins
Claire Jolivet,
Concertmaster,
petite choeur soli
Elizabeth Field,
petite choeur soli
Alexandra Eddy,
Nina Falk,
Garry Clarke
Haute Contres
June Huang (violin),
Timothy Haig (violin)
Tailles
Leslie Nero (viola),
C. Ann Loud (viola)
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Quintes
Gesa Kordes, (viola),
Risa Browder (viola)
Bassoons
Marilyn Boenau,
Anna Marsh
Joan McFarland
Rebecca Kellerman
Petretta
Violoncello
Loretta O’ Sullivan*
Percussion
Michelle Humphreys
Viol
John Moran*
Theorbos
Daniel Swenberg*,
William Simms*
Alto
Marta Kirilloff Barber
Roger Isaacs
Tara McCredie
Tracy Cowart
Basses de Violon
Alice Robbins,
NJ Snider**,
Jay Elfenbein
Harpsichord
Andrew Appel*
Flutes
Colin St. Martin,
Katherine Roth
Oboes
Washington McClain
(and recorder)
Margaret Owens
Owen Watkins
(and recorder)
*Continuo
**Orchestra Personnel
Manager
Chorus
Soprano
Rachel Barham
Adria McCulloch
Tenor
James Biggs
Gary Glick
Adam Hall
Eric Sampson
Bass
Andrew Adelsberger
Steven Combs
Darren Perry
Jonathan Woody
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Ryan Brown
Photo: Naomi Reddert
Ryan Brown is the founder, conductor and artistic director of Opera Lafayette. His vivid
interpretations of baroque and classical opera, and the French repertoire in particular, have
received the highest praise from critics in the United States and abroad. In addition to his
work with Opera Lafayette he has conducted Italian, German, and English repertoire with
other companies, leading performances of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Cimarosa’s
Il matrimonio segreto with the University of Maryland’s Opera Studio, Mozart’s Die
Entführung aus dem Serail with the Sonoma Opera, Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the
Redwoods Festival, and assisting with productions of Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s Il
trovatore with the Baltimore Opera while studying conducting with the eminent Gustav
Meier at the Peabody Institute. His educational endeavours with Opera Lafayette have
included creating seminars on French opera for the Smithsonian Institution and giving
lectures on style and opera for other organizations, as well as preparing editions of
eighteenth-century operas for performance and publication. He has also been a panelist for
the National Endowment for the Arts. Ryan Brown was raised in a musical family in California, and attended
Oberlin College, the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and the Juilliard School, where his principal violin
studies were with Dorothy Delay. Before turning his attention to conducting, he toured the United States, Europe,
and Japan as a chamber musician and with the Four Nations Ensemble, made six critically acclaimed recordings of
baroque and classical music for the London-based Gaudeamus label.
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14
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
La tragédie d’Armide
Au cours des quatre-vingts années qui suivirent sa
création en 1685, l’Armide de Lully connut à l’Opéra de
Paris une histoire interprétative riche et variée. Tout en
tenant Lully et son librettiste Quinault en très haute
estime, les responsables des productions n’hésitèrent
pas à modifier la partition et le livret de manière à
s’assurer du succès de l’ouvrage. Les interprètes
d’aujourd’hui sont énormément redevables à des
musicologues qui, comme Lois Rosow dans le cas
d’Armide, ont élaboré des éditions et effectué des
recherches reconstituant minutieusement à notre
intention les circonstances originales de la création
d’œuvres données et nous fournissant des informations
détaillées sur la manière dont elles furent traitées par la
suite au cours de leur histoire.
Pour notre enregistrement, nous nous sommes
parfois éloignés de la version originale de 1686
d’Armide. Ces changements sont le reflet de
préoccupations pratiques, des différences inhérentes à
l’écoute d’un enregistrement par opposition au fait
d’assister à une représentation, et des problèmes de
dramaturgie traités au cours de l’histoire interprétative
de l’ouvrage au XVIIIè siècle.
Les premiers changements historiques importants se
focalisèrent sur de la pertinence très débattue de l’acte
IV et notamment de sa scène 4, durant laquelle le
chevalier Ubalde est tenté par Mélisse et qui fait écho
aux scènes précédentes où Lucinde s’efforce de séduire
le Chevalier danois. Lecerf de la Viéville décréta en
1705 qu’il fallait couper cette scène, et elle fut éliminée
des productions dès 1697. Rebel et Francoeur,
inspecteurs généraux de l’Opéra au milieu du XVIIIè
siècle, effectuèrent une coupure à partir d’un passage de
la scène 3, même s’ils rallongèrent le précédent
divertissement. Notre choix assez simple a été de relier
le troisième air de la scène 3 à l’entracte précédant l’acte
V en passant directement d’un rythme ternaire en ut
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majeur à un autre, palliant ainsi à la répétitivité si
problématique du quatrième acte et réduisant du même
coup le long récitatif qui aurait autrement conclu l’acte
IV et ouvert l’acte V.
Nous avons quelque peu abrégé le divertissement de
l’acte II, scène 4, en supprimant l’un des airs de la
Bergère. Au XVIIIè siècle, Rebel et Francoeur firent
eux aussi quelques ajustements à cette scène, mais de
manière un peu différente et dans le cadre d’autres
modifications stylistiques. Dans les danses de divers
divertissements et entractes, nous avons éliminé
plusieurs reprises, et notamment dans les Sarabandes du
premier acte, qui dans le contexte de la chorégraphie
d’une production scénique auraient sûrement été
fascinantes et auraient donné une imposante symétrie à
la scène mais qui semblent trop répétitives pour un
enregistrement.
Le dernier changement, qui est aussi le plus
important, est de faire suivre directement l’Ouverture
par l’action de l’acte I en supprimant le Prologue, un
panégyrique de Louis XIV faisant intervenir les
personnages allégoriques de la Sagesse et de la Gloire.
Historiquement, le Prologue ne fut abandonné qu’en
1761, époque à laquelle les sensibilités artistiques et
politiques avaient considérablement évolué. Toutefois,
il semble que le public se soit enthousiasmé pour ce
récit dramatique, et en 1777, Gluck produisit sa propre
Armide, sans prologue mais suivant presque le livret de
Quinault à la lettre, et elle connut un riche parcours
interprétatif au XIXè siècle, tout comme la version de
Lully au XVIIIè. L’histoire et notre propre version nous
rappellent ainsi que chaque génération d’interprètes
lègue un peu de son expérience à la suivante, et que
l’interprétation de chefs-d’œuvre comme Armide est
constamment vivace et formatrice.
Ryan Brown
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Armide : Le triomphe suprême de Lully
Armide constitue le point culminant de la longue et
fructueuse carrière de Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687),
plus puissant musicien de la cour de Louis XIV et
premier compositeur majeur d’opéras français. Bien
qu’il ne s’agisse pas de son ultime composition, Armide
fut sa dernière tragédie en musique complète et la
dernière œuvre qu’il écrivit en collaboration avec le
librettiste Philippe Quinault. Son succès fut instantané et
durable : elle séduisit les foules lors de sa production
initiale et demeura l’un des ouvrages préférés du public
et des critiques du XVIIIè siècle.
La création, prévue à l’origine pour la cour royale
de Versailles mais plusieurs fois reportée parce que le
compositeur et le roi étaient souffrants, eut lieu à Paris
le 15 février 1686, au théâtre public de Lully au PalaisRoyal. Une semaine plus tard, Henry Baud de SainteFrique décrivit l’événement de manière imagée dans une
lettre adressée à un personnage officiel de la cour
toscane à Florence : “Il y avait une telle foule que plus
personne ne pouvait entrer, et plus de cent spectateurs
avaient été placés sur la scène au prix d’un louis par tête.
Chaque loge contenait dix personnes. Vous savez qu’il
en suffit de sept pour qu’elles débordent et qu’on se
trouve au comble de l’inconfort. L’amphithéâtre, le
parterre et la galerie étaient un tel enchevêtrement que
l’on ne pouvait le contempler sans en être stupéfié. On
prétend que Lully reçut 10 000 francs ce jour-là.” Le
Mercure galant rapporta que “l’on trouva le texte tout à
fait digne de son auteur, ce qui va sans dire puisqu’il
excelle dans des ouvrages de cette nature. Tous furent
charmés par l’orchestre et la musique. Le décor semblait
grandiose et nouveau, notamment le théâtre qui
s’effondre. C’est une invention de Monsieur Bérain, le
dessinateur du Cabinet du Roy. On s’exclama fort sur la
beauté de toutes les parties qui constituent le cinquième
acte de cet opéra.” (Le “théâtre qui s’effondre,” image
immortalisée par le frontispice du livret publié, était le
palais magique d’Armide, détruit sur ses ordres par des
démons à la fin de l’opéra.) Lorsque Lully publia la
partition plus tard cette même année, il commença sa
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lettre de dédicace au roi en faisant allusion aux
difficultés de la programmation versaillaise : “Sire, de
toutes les tragédies que j’ay mises en musique voicy
celle dont le Public a tesmoigné estre le plus satisfait:
c’est un spectacle où l’on court en foule, et jusqu’icy on
n’en a point veu qui ait receu plus d’applaudissements;
cependant,c’est de tous les ouvrages que j’ay faits celuy
que j’estime le moins heureux, puisqu’il n’a pas encore
eû l’avantage de paroistre devant Vostre Majesté… “
On pense que Louis XIV ne vit jamais Armide. Il semble
qu’à cause de l’implication de Lully dans un scandale
sexuel l’hiver précédent, ajoutée à l’atmosphère
générale d’austérité et de religiosité qui régnait à la cour
à la fin des années 1680, le roi se soit distancé de celui
qui avait été son compositeur favori et de l’Opéra de
Paris.
Pourtant, c’était Louis XIV en personne qui avait
choisi le sujet du livret : “Quinault apporta au roi chez
Madame De Montespan trois livres d’opéra pour cet
hiver… Le roi les trouva tous trois à son gré et choisit
celui d’Armide.” Alors que la plupart des tragédies en
musique de Quinault ont des sujets mythologiques,
principalement puisés dans les Métamorphoses d’Ovide,
les trois dernières (Amadis, Roland, Armide) présentent
des récits de chevalerie médiévale, tirés des romances
de Montalvo, de l’Arioste, et du Tasse. D’une part, cette
engouement nouveau pour les croisades est
compréhensible : à la suite du décès de la reine en 1683,
le roi se préoccupait de plus en plus de religion et de
moralité. D’autre part, les trames de ces opéras
constituent des archétypes familiers de la mythologie
classique : la magicienne Armide et le guerrier Renaud
auraient tout aussi bien pu être Circé et Ulysse. Quoi
qu’il en soit, l’épopée de Torquato Tasso Gerusalemme
liberata, source de l’histoire d’Armida et Rinaldo, était
bien connue et très populaire — elle avait plusieurs fois
été traduite en français entre 1595 et 1671 — et le récit
d’Armide notamment avait auparavant été mis en scène
dans d’importants ballets de la cour française.
En fait, cette histoire se prêtait bien à l’allégorie
politique. L’opéra débute par un prologue allégorique
(non enregistré ici) louant le règne sage et glorieux du
16
roi et faisant une référence cryptée à un “monstre”
terrassé par le monarque. L’événement politique qui
occupait le plus les Parisiens début 1686 était la
révocation de l’Edit de Nantes du 22 octobre 1685,
aboutissement d’années de persécutions contre les
Huguenots. Ainsi, le “monstre” était le protestantisme,
diabolisé ici comme dans toute la littérature officielle.
Métaphoriquement, on peut aussi déceler ce thème dans
la tragédie proprement dite, le vertueux croisé européen
Renaud symbolisant la France catholique, et la
séduisante princesse et magicienne moyen-orientale
Armide représentant l’hérésie protestante.
Pourtant, Renaud n’est pas le principal protagoniste
de l’opéra. Sur la toile de fond de l’allégorie royale
conventionnelle, l’héroïne Armide est en proie un
terrible conflit intérieur, partagée entre l’amour et la
vengeance, et c’est son histoire qui domine l’intrigue. A
propos de la merveilleuse actrice-chanteuse Marie
(“Marthe”) Le Rochois, qui créa le rôle, le biographe du
XVIIIè siècle Evrard Titon du Tillet écrivit : “Quel
ravissement que de la voir dans la cinquième scène du
deuxième acte …, un poignard à la main, prête à
transpercer la poitrine de Renaud, endormi sur un lit de
verdure ! La fureur l’animait à sa vue, l’amour vint et
s’empara de son cœur ; l’une et l’autre l’affectèrent tour
à tour. La pitié et la tendresse s’ensuivirent, et l’amour
remporta la victoire.” Jean-Laurent Lecerf de la
Viéville, écrivant en 1705 au sujet d’une reprise de
l’ouvrage ayant eu lieu environ dix ans après la création,
remarquait : “Quand je me représente la Rochois, cette
petite femme plus toute jeune couronnée de cheveux
noirs et armée d’une canne noire ornée d’un ruban de la
couleur du feu, parcourant cette grande scène, qu’elle
remplissait presque à elle toute seule, et exhalant parfois
un chant merveilleux, je vous assure que j’en frissonne
encore.” En fin de compte, ni la beauté et le pouvoir
d’Armide, ni l’armée de démons qu’elle a sous ses
ordres (et qui effectuent quelques apparitions déguisés
en innocentes figures pastorales) ne peuvent la sauver
d’elle-même. Selon Lecerf, après le rideau final, “le
spectateur, empli d’une passion qui a crû jusqu’à cet
ultime instant… rentre chez lui profondément ému
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malgré lui, songeur, chagriné de l’infortune d’Armide.”
La musique de Lully se caractérise par l’habile
arrangement de segments liés et emboîtés rappelant
assez les plantations d’un jardin à la française. Des airs
miniatures et de brèves introductions instrumentales se
mêlent à des passages de récitatif mélodieux et
expressifs pour former le dessin de structures scéniques
de grande envergure. Les cinq actes étaient exécutés
sans interruption, de courts entractes musicaux
accompagnant de spectaculaires changements de décor.
Les épisodes de ballet de chaque acte, qu’il s’agisse
d’une cérémonie, d’une scène d’enchantement pastoral
ou du terrifiant rituel de la Haine et de son cortège,
réunissaient des troupes d’interprètes dans une action
commune, les danseurs représentant les corps des
personnages collectifs et le chœur leurs voix. A deux
reprises, le livret fait appel à une machinerie scénique
recherchée : lors de l’entracte reliant les actes II et III,
durant lequel des démons déguisés en zéphyrs
inoffensifs emportent Armide et Renaud endormi loin
de la rive champêtre, et à la fin de l’opéra, quand le
palais enchanté d’Armide s’effondre. Tout au long de
l’opéra, l’orchestre dépeint les caractères et
l’atmosphère — comme ces murmures de flûtes et ces
cordes avec sourdine du sommeil enchanté de Renaud,
ces amples intervalles et ces rythmes acérés quand
Armide entre le poignard à la main, ce grondement
répétitif de la ligne de basse de la cérémonie de la
Haine, ou ces variations hypnotiques, séduisantes et
incessantes au-dessus d’une boucle harmonique dans la
longue danse (une passacaille) de l’acte V.
L’édition s’appuie principalement sur la partition
éditée sous la direction de Lully en 1686, avec des
informations additionnelles tirées de deux parties de
violon manuscrites (les seules du matériau orchestral
original qui nous soient parvenues), du livret imprimé
pour la création et d’un groupe de parties vocales et
instrumentales provenant de productions parisiennes
d’Armide au XVIIIè siècle. Pour la présente version,
nous avons choisi d’ajouter des parties de percussion.
Lois Rosow
8.660209-10
Des portions de ce commentaire sont parues pour la
première fois dans les Œuvres complètes de J.-B. Lully,
ser. 3, vol. 14 (Hildesheim, 2003) ; reproduites avec
l’aimable autorisation de l’Association Lully et de
Georg Olms Verlag.
Synopsis
Acte I : Armide, princesse guerrière et magicienne, est
louée par ses confidentes Phénice et Sidonie pour sa
victoire sur les croisés qu’elle a capturés. Toutefois,
Armide exprime sa colère et sa frustration car elle n’est
pas parvenue à triompher de Renaud, le plus vaillant des
chevaliers chrétiens. Hidraot, l’oncle d’Armide, incite
sa nièce à se marier, mais elle déclare que si elle devait
succomber à l’amour, elle ne pourrait épouser qu’un
homme capable de vaincre Renaud. Alors que l’on
célèbre la victoire d’Armide, Aronte, qui gardait les
prisonniers, entre, blessé à mort, et annonce que Renaud
a délivré les captifs. Armide et Hidraot jurent qu’un tel
ennemi n’échappera pas à leur vengeance.
Acte II : Artémidore, l’un des chevaliers sauvés par
Renaud, fait l’éloge de son libérateur et l’adjure de fuir
l’endroit où règne Armide. Renaud assure Artémidore
que son cœur est à l’abri des sortilèges d’Armide.
Hidraot et Armide invoquent des démons pour endormir
Renaud. Le héros admire le paysage qui l’entoure et
s’assied pour se reposer. Les démons, qui ont pris
l’apparence de nymphes et de bergers, ensorcellent
Renaud. Armide entre, bien décidée à le tuer dans son
sommeil, mais elle s’éprend de lui et se dit que sa plus
grande victoire serait d’employer sa magie pour le faire
tomber sous son emprise et l’obliger à l’aimer. Elle
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ordonne aux démons de se transformer en zéphyrs et de
les emporter au loin.
Acte III : Armide se lamente d’avoir livré son cœur à
Renaud. Phénice et Sidonie exhortent Armide de
s’abandonner à l’amour, mais Armide est troublée car si
elle aime éperdument Renaud, seule sa magie le lie à
elle. Armide invoque l’esprit de la Haine pour la
délivrer de son vain amour. Malgré la puissante
invocation de la Haine et de sa suite, Armide n’arrive
pas à renoncer à Renaud, et elle les renvoie. La Haine
maudit Armide, la condamnant à aimer éternellement.
Acte IV : Ubalde et le Chevalier danois, deux des
compagnons de Renaud, cherchent leur héros pour le
soustraire à Armide. Ils parviennent à résister aux
tentations et aux dangereux délices que la magicienne a
mis sur leur route.
Acte V : Armide et Renaud se déclarent leur passion,
mais un sombre pressentiment hante Armide, qui veut
prendre le conseil des Enfers. Elle se retire et laisse les
Plaisirs et des Amants fortunés divertir Renaud. En son
absence, Ubalde et le Chevalier danois découvrent
Renaud et brisent le sortilège d’Armide. Revenue à
temps, elle supplie celui qu’elle aime de ne pas la quitter
ou de l’emmener captive avec lui. Le Devoir et la Gloire
obligent Renaud à abandonner Armide, mais il exprime
la pitié qu’elle lui inspire. Restée seule, la magicienne
au cœur brisé déclare qu’il ne lui reste que l’espoir de se
venger. Elle donne alors aux démons l’ordre de détruire
son palais enchanté, espérant ainsi enterrer à jamais son
amour maudit.
Traductions françaises de David Ylla-Somers
18
Also available:
8.660118-19
8.660196-97
19
8.660209-10
Also available:
8.557993
8.660209-10
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NAXOS
NAXOS
DDD
LULLY
Playing Time
2:01:49
(1632-1687)
The Tragedy of Armide
55:33
2:18
24:40
28:35
CD 2
1-5 Act III
6-9 Act IV
0-$ Act V
66:16
20:54
15:28
29:55
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A full track list can be found on pages 2 and 3 of the booklet
The French libretto and an English translation can be accessed at www.naxos.com/libretti/660209.htm
Recorded at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, USA,
from 2nd to 5th February, 2007 • Producer: Max Wilcox • Engineers: Max Wilcox and Antonino d’Urzo
Editors: Antonino d’Urzo and Ryan Brown • Booklet notes: Ryan Brown and Lois Rosow
Cover image: Rinaldo and Armida by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641)
(Louvre, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library)
Booklet notes in English • Notice en français
CD 1
1 Ouverture
2-8 Act I
9-$ Act II
 & 훿 2008 Naxos Rights International Ltd.
Opera Lafayette • Ryan Brown
Disc made in Canada. Printed and assembled in USA.
Armide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephanie Houtzeel, Mezzo-soprano
Renaud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Getchell, Tenor
Hidraot; Ubalde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . François Loup, Bass
Artémidore; La Haine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Sharp, Baritone
Phénice; Lucinde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ann Monoyios, Soprano
Sidonie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Miriam Dubrow, Soprano
Le Chevalier danois; Un Amant fortuné . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tony Boutté, Tenor
Aronte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Darren Perry, Baritone
Une Bergère héroïque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adria McCulloch, Soprano
Une Naïade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tara McCredie, Soprano
LULLY: The Tragedy of Armide
8.660209-10
Jean-Baptiste
www.naxos.com
LULLY: The Tragedy of Armide
Armide represents the culmination of the long and fruitful career of Jean-Baptiste Lully, the
most powerful musician at the court of Louis XIV and the first important composer of French
opera. Though not his final composition, Armide was his last complete tragédie en musique and
the last work he wrote in collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault. It was an instant and
enduring success: a crowd-pleaser at its initial production and a perennial favourite of audiences
and critics in the 18th century.