Jerusalem Delivered
Encyclopedia
Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian poet
Italian literature
Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
first published in 1581, which tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
in which Catholic knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon was a medieval Frankish knight who was one of the leaders of the First Crusade from 1096 until his death. He was the Lord of Bouillon, from which he took his byname, from 1076 and the Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1087...
, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem
Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
The Siege of Jerusalem took place from June 7 to July 15, 1099 during the First Crusade. The Crusaders stormed and captured the city from Fatimid Egypt.-Background:...
. The poem is composed of eight line stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
s grouped into 20 canto
Canto
The canto is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic. The word comes from Italian, meaning "song" or singing. Famous examples of epic poetry which employ the canto division are Lord Byron's Don Juan, Valmiki's Ramayana , Dante's The Divine Comedy , and Ezra Pound's The...
s of varying length.
The work belongs to the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
tradition of the Italian romantic epic poem, and Tasso frequently borrows plot elements and character types directly from Ariosto's Orlando furioso
Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
. Tasso's poem also has elements inspired by the classical epics of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
and Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
(especially in those sections of their works that tell of sieges and warfare).
Tasso's choice of subject matter, an actual historic conflict between Christians and Muslims (albeit with fantastical elements added), had a historical grounding and created compositional implications (the narrative subject matter had a fixed endpoint and could not be endlessly spun out in multiple volumes) that are lacking in other Renaissance epics. But like other works of the period which portray conflicts between Christians and Muslims, this subject matter had a topical resonance to readers of the period, as the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
was advancing through Eastern Europe.
One of the most characteristic literary devices in Tasso's poem is the emotional conundrum endured by characters torn between their heart and their duty, and this depiction of love at odds with martial valour or honor is a source of great lyrical passion in the poem.
Composition and publication
Tasso began work on the poem in the mid-1560s. Originally, it bore the title Il Goffredo. It was completed in April, 1575 and that summer the poet read his work to Duke Alfonso of FerraraAlfonso II, Duke of Ferrara
Alfonso II d'Este was duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the house of Este.-Biography:...
and Lucrezia, Duchess of Urbino. A pirate edition of 14 cantos from the poem appeared in Venice in 1580. The first complete editions of Gerusalemme liberata were published in Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
and Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
in 1581.
Plot summary
Sofronia (in English: Sophronia), a Christian maiden of Jerusalem, accuses herself of a crime in order to avert a general massacre of the Christians by the Muslim king. In an attempt to save her, her lover Olindo accuses himself in turn, and each lover pleads with the authorities in order to save the other.
Clorinda, a warrior-maiden, joins the Muslims, but the Christian knight Tancredi
Tancred, Prince of Galilee
Tancred was a Norman leader of the First Crusade who later became Prince of Galilee and regent of the Principality of Antioch...
(in English: Tancred) falls in love with her. During a night battle in which she sets the Christian siege tower on fire, she is mistakenly killed by her lover, but she converts to Christianity before dying. The character of Clorinda is inspired in part by Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
's Camilla and by Bradamante
Bradamante
Bradamante is the sister of Rinaldo, and one of the heroines in Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto in their handling of the Charlemagne legends, also called the Matter of France.She falls in love with the Saracen warrior Ruggiero, but refuses to...
in Ariosto; the circumstances of her birth (a Caucasian girl born to African parents) are modeled on the lead character (Chariclea) from the ancient Greek novel by Heliodorus of Emesa
Heliodorus of Emesa
Heliodorus of Emesa, from Emesa, Syria, was a Greek writer generally dated to the third century AD who is known for the ancient Greek novel or romance called the Aethiopica or sometimes "Theagenes and Chariclea"....
.
Erminia
Princess Erminia was a character in the epic poemLa Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso. In this tale she falls in love with the Christian knight Tancred, and betrays her people to aid him. Once she discovers that Tancred is in love with Clorinde, however, she returns to join the Muslims...
(or "Hermine") of Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
, also falls in love with Tancredi and betrays her people to help him, but she grows jealous when she learns that Tancredi loves Clorinda. She returns to the Muslims, then steals Clorinda's armor and joins a group of shepherds.
The witch Armida
Armida
The story of Armida, a Saracen sorceress and Rinaldo, a soldier in the First Crusade, was created by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso. In his epic Gerusalemme liberata, Rinaldo is a fierce and determined warrior who is also honorable and handsome...
(modeled on Circe
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...
in Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
and the witch Alcina
Alcina
Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after, during his travels in Italy...
in Ariosto's epic) enters the Christian camp asking for their aid; her seductions divide the knights against each other and a group leaves with her, only to be transformed into animals by her magic.
Armida tries to kill the greatest Christian knight Rinaldo (his name appears in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
(III, 30); he is the son of Bertoldo and was the reputed founder of the house of Este) but she falls in love with him instead and takes him away to a magical island where he becomes infatuated with her caresses and grows idle. Two Christian knights seek out the hidden fortress, brave the dangers that guard it and, by giving Rinaldo a mirror of diamond, force him to see himself in his effeminated and amorous state and to return to the war, leaving Armida heartbroken. Armida grieves at this loss and desires death, but being a sorceress, she cannot die. (This sequence echoes a similar storyline in Ariosto: the witch Alcina ensnares the knight Ruggiero
Ruggiero (character)
Ruggiero is a leading character in the Italian romantic epics Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Ruggiero had originally appeared in the twelfth-century French epic, Aspremont, reworked by Andrea da Barberino as the chivalric romance Aspramonte...
, but the spell is broken by a magic ring that the good sorceress Melissa brings him; earlier antecedents include Circe
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...
's attempt to keep Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
on her island, and Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay , alternatively known as Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician...
taking Ogier the Dane
Ogier the Dane
Ogier the Dane is a legendary character who first appears in an Old French chanson de geste, in the cycle of poems Geste de Doon de Mayence....
off to a faraway island).
Reception
The poem was immensely successful throughout Europe and over the next two centuries various sections were frequently adapted as individual storylines for operas, plays, ballets and masquerades; scenes from the poem were also depicted in paintings and frescoFresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es (for example, at Fontainebleau
School of Fontainebleau
The Ecole de Fontainebleau refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered around the royal Château de Fontainebleau, that were crucial in forming the French version of Northern Mannerism....
in France, in the Villa Valmarana (Lisiera) in the Veneto, and at Hohenschwangau
Hohenschwangau
Hohenschwangau is a village in the municipality of Schwangau, Ostallgäu district, Bavaria, Germany.It is located between Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau and is visited by about 2 million people annually, where they start tours to the former royal palaces.The village is dominated...
in Germany). For the work's immense influence on painters and musicians, see "Works based on . . ." below.
Certain critics of the period however were less enthusiastic, and Tasso came under much criticism for the magical extravagance and narrative confusion of his poem. Before his death, he rewrote the poem virtually from scratch, under a new title La Gerusalemme Conquistata, or "Jerusalem Conquered." This revised version, however, has found little favor with either audiences or critics.
Gerusalemme liberata and English literature
The fame of Tasso's poem quickly spread throughout the European continent. In England, Sidney, Daniel and Drayton seem to have admired it, and, most importantly, Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
described Tasso as an "excellente poete" and made use of elements from Gerusalemme liberata in The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...
. The description of Redcrosse's vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem in the First Book owes something to Rinaldo's morning vision in Canto 18 of "Gerusalemme". In the twelfth canto of Book Two, Spenser's enchantress Acrasia is partly modelled on Tasso's Armida and the English poet directly imitated two stanzas from the Italian The portrayal of Satan and the demons in the first two books of Milton's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
is also indebted to Tasso's poem.
The first attempt to translate Gerusalemme liberata was made by Richard Carew, who published his version of the first five cantos as Godfrey of Bulloigne or the recoverie of Hierusalem in 1594. More significant was the complete rendering by Edward Fairfax
Edward Fairfax
Edward Fairfax was a translator, the natural son of Sir Thomas Fairfax the elder, of Denton in Yorkshire, and thus a half-brother of Sir Thomas Fairfax.Fairfax lived at New Hall, Fewston...
which appeared in 1600 and has been acclaimed as one of the finest English verse translations. (There is also an eighteenth-century translation by John Hoole
John Hoole
John Hoole was an English translator, the son of watch-maker and inventor, Samuel Hoole and Sarah Drury. He was born in London, and worked in India House , of which he rose to be principal auditor...
, and modern versions by Anthony Esolen and Max Wickert
Max Wickert
Max Wickert is an American teacher, poet, translator and publisher. He is presently Professor of English Emeritus on the English Department of University at Buffalo-Personal life:...
.) Tasso's poem remained popular among educated English readers and was, at least until the end of the 19th century, considered one of the supreme achievements of Western literature. Somewhat eclipsed in the Modernist period, its fame is showing signs of recovering.
Works based on Jerusalem Delivered
Music and operas
- Madrigals La Gerusalemme Liberata by Giaches de WertGiaches de WertGiaches de Wert was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance, active in Italy. Intimately connected with the progressive musical center of Ferrara, he was one of the leaders in developing the style of the late Renaissance madrigal...
(ca. 1595) - Ballet de la Delivrance de Renaud by Pierre Guedron (Paris, 1617)
- Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Claudio MonteverdiClaudio MonteverdiClaudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
(1624) from his eighth book of madrigals - Le lagrime d'Erminia song-cycle by Biagio MariniBiagio MariniBiagio Marini was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer of the first half of the seventeenth century.Marini was born in Brescia. His works were printed and influential throughout the European musical world...
(Parma, after 1620) - Il Tancredi by Girolamo Giacobbi (Bologna, before 1629)
- Erminia sul Giordano by Michelangelo RossiMichelangelo RossiMichelangelo Rossi was an important Italian composer, violinist and organist of the Baroque era....
(Rome, 1633) - Armida by Benedetto FerrariBenedetto FerrariBenedetto Ferrari was an Italian composer, particularly of opera, librettist and theorbo player.Ferrari was born in Reggio nell'Emilia. He worked in Rome , Parma , and possibly in Modena at some time between 1623 and 1637. He created music and libretti in Venice and Bologna, 1637-44...
(Venice, 1639) music lost - Armida by Marco MarazzoliMarco MarazzoliMarco Marazzoli was an Italian priest and composer.-Early life:Born at Parma, Marazzoli received early training as a priest, and was ordained around 1625. He moved to Rome in 1626, and entered the service of Cardinal Antonio Barberini...
(Ferrara, 1641) - ArmideArmide (Lully)Armide is an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The libretto was written by Philippe Quinault, based on Torquato Tasso's La Gerusalemme liberata .Critics in the 18th century regarded Armide as Lully's masterpiece...
by Jean-Baptiste LullyJean-Baptiste LullyJean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
(Paris, 1686) - La Gerusalemme liberata by Carlo PallavicinoCarlo PallavicinoCarlo Pallavicino was an Italian composer.Pallavicino was born at Salò, Italy. From 1666 to 1673, he worked at the Dresden court, from 1674 to 1685, at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice and further in Dresden...
(Venice, 1687) - Gli avvenimenti di Erminia e di Clorinda by Carlo Francesco PollaroloCarlo Francesco PollaroloCarlo Francesco Pollarolo was an Italian composer, chiefly of operas. Born into a musical family, he became the cathedral organist of his home town of Brescia. In the 1680s he began composing operas for performance in nearby Venice. He wrote a total of 85 of them as well as 13 oratorios...
(Venice, 1693) music lost - Amori di Rinaldo con Armida by Teofilo Orgiani (Brescia, 1697) music lost
- TancrèdeTancrèdeTancrède is a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts by composer André Campra and librettist Antoine Danchet, based on Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso....
by André CampraAndré CampraAndré Campra was a French composer and conductor.Campra was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique, but his chief claim to fame is as the creator of a new genre, opéra-ballet...
(Paris, 1702) - Suite d'Armide ou Jerusalem Delivree by Philippe II duke of OrleansPhilippe d'OrléansPhilippe d'Orléans may refer to:*Philip of Valois, Duke of Orléans , the second surviving son of Philip VI of France*Philippe I, Duke of Orléans , only sibling of Louis XIV of France...
(Fontainebleau, 1704) - Armida abbandonataArmida abbandonataArmida Abbandonata is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Niccolò Jommelli. The libretto, by Francesco Saverio De Rogatis, is based on the epic poem Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso. The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 30 May 1770. The young Wolfgang...
by Giovanni Maria RuggieriGiovanni Maria RuggieriGiovanni Maria Ruggieri or Ruggeriwas a Baroque composer from Italy. His dates of birth and death are uncertain, but he may have been born about 1665 in Verona and died around 1725. He is known to have flourished from 1689–1720.-Life:...
(Venice, 1707) - Armida al campo by Giuseppe Boniventi (Venice, 1708)
- Armida regina di Damasco by Teofilo Orgiani (Verona, 1711) music lost
- RinaldoRinaldo (opera)Rinaldo is an opera by George Frideric Handel composed in 1711. It is the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage. The libretto was prepared by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill. The work was first performed at the Queen's Theatre in London's...
by George Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
(London, 1711) - Armida in Damasco by Giacomo RampiniGiacomo RampiniGiacomo Rampini was an Italian composer of operas, oratorios, and sacred music. He was appointed the maestro di cappella of the Padua Cathedral in 1704, a position he held until his death at which time Andrea Adolfati took over the post...
(Venice, 1711) - Armida abbandonata by Giuseppe Maria Buini (Bologna, 1716)
- Armida al campo d'Egitto by Antonio VivaldiAntonio VivaldiAntonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
(Venice, 1718) - Armida delusa by Giuseppe Maria Buini (Venice, 1720)
- Renaud, ou la Suite d'Armide by Henry Desmarest (Paris, 1722)
- Das eroberte Jerusalem, oder Armida und Rinaldo by Georg Caspar SchurmannGeorg Caspar SchürmannGeorg Caspar Schürmann was a German Baroque composer. His name also appears as Schurmann and in Hochdeutsch as Scheuermann.-Life:...
(Brunswick, 1722) - Armida abbandonataArmida abbandonataArmida Abbandonata is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Niccolò Jommelli. The libretto, by Francesco Saverio De Rogatis, is based on the epic poem Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso. The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 30 May 1770. The young Wolfgang...
by Antonio BioniAntonio BioniAntonio Bioni was an Italian composer best known for his operas.He was born in Venice.-Operas:*Climene *Mitridate *Cajo Mario *Udine...
(Prague, 1725) - Armida al campo by Antonio BioniAntonio BioniAntonio Bioni was an Italian composer best known for his operas.He was born in Venice.-Operas:*Climene *Mitridate *Cajo Mario *Udine...
(Breslau/Wrocław, 1726) - L'abbandono di Armida by Antonio Pollarolo (Venice, 1729)
- Armida placata by Luca Antonio PredieriLuca Antonio PredieriLuca Antonio Predieri was an Italian composer and violinist. A member of a prominent family of musicians, Predieri was born in Bologna and was active there from 1704. In 1737 he moved to Vienna, eventually becoming Kapellmeister to the imperial Habsburg court in 1741, a post he held for ten years...
(Vienna, 1750) - La Armida aplacada by Giovanni Battista Mele (Madrid, 1750)
- Armida by Carl Heinrich GraunCarl Heinrich GraunCarl Heinrich Graun was a German composer and tenor singer. Along with Johann Adolf Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.-Biography:...
(Berlin, 1751) - The Inchanted Forrest by Francesco GeminianiFrancesco Geminianithumb|230px|Francesco Geminiani.Francesco Saverio Geminiani was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist.-Biography:...
(London, 1754) - Armida by Tommaso TraettaTommaso TraettaTommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta was an Italian composer.-Biography:Traetta was born in Bitonto, a town near Bari, near the top of the heel of the boot of Italy. He eventually became a pupil of the composer, singer and teacher Nicola Porpora in Naples, and scored a first success with his...
(Vienna, 1761) - Armida abbandonataArmida abbandonataArmida Abbandonata is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Niccolò Jommelli. The libretto, by Francesco Saverio De Rogatis, is based on the epic poem Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso. The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 30 May 1770. The young Wolfgang...
by Niccolò JommelliNiccolò JommelliNiccolò Jommelli was an Italian composer. He was born in Aversa and died in Naples. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he made important changes to opera and reduced the importance of star singers.-Early life:Jommelli was born to Francesco Antonio Jommelli and...
(Naples, 1770) - ArmidaArmida (Salieri)Armida is an operatic 'dramma per musica' by Antonio Salieri in three acts, set to a libretto by Marco Coltellini. The plot is based on the epic poem by Torquato Tasso, and Lully, Traetta, and Handel had already composed operas based on the situations that Tasso originally developed...
by Antonio SalieriAntonio SalieriAntonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
(Vienna, 1771) - ArmideArmide (Gluck)Armide is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, his fifth for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works. It was first performed in Paris at the Académie Royale on 23 September 1777....
by Christoph Willibald GluckChristoph Willibald GluckChristoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
(Paris, 1777) - ArmidaArmida (Mysliveček)Armida is an opera in three acts by Josef Mysliveček set to a libretto by Gianambrogio Migliavacca based on an earlier libretto by Philippe Quinault. It is one of many operas set at the time of the Crusades that is based on characters and incidents from Torquato Tasso's epic poem La Gerusalemme...
by Josef MyslivečekJosef MyslivecekJosef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music...
(Milan, 1780) - ArmidaArmida (Haydn)Armida, Hob. 28/12, is an opera in three acts by Joseph Haydn, set to a libretto based upon Torquato Tasso's poem Gerusalemme liberata . The first performance was 26 February 1784 and it went on to receive 54 performances from 1784 to 1788 at the Esterháza Court Theatre...
by Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
(1784) - ArmidaArmida (Rossini)Armida is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, based on scenes from Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso.-Performance history:...
by Gioacchino RossiniGioacchino RossiniGioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...
(Naples, 1817) - RinaldoRinaldo (cantata)Rinaldo, a cantata for tenor solo, four-part male chorus and orchestra, was begun by Johannes Brahms in 1863 as an entry for a choral competition announced in Aachen...
by Johannes BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
(1858) cantata - ArmidaArmida (Dvorák)Armida is an opera by Antonín Dvořák in four acts, set to a libretto by Jaroslav Vrchlický that was originally based on Torquato Tasso's epic La Gerusalemme liberata...
by Antonín DvořákAntonín DvorákAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
(1904) - "Armida" by Judith WeirJudith WeirJudith Weir CBE, is a British composer.-Biography:Her music has been appreciated by audiences and critics alike. She trained with John Tavener while still at school and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976...
(2005)
Plays
Max Turiel. Clorinda Deleste, El Camino del Sol. Play and Script, partially adapted from " Gerusalemme Liberata ".ISBN 84-934710-8-9. Ediciones La Sirena 2006.
Paintings
- Lorenzo LippiLorenzo LippiLorenzo Lippi was an Italian painter and poet.Born in Florence, he studied painting under Matteo Rosselli. Both Baldassare Franceschini and Francesco Furini were also apprenticed with Rosselli...
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lorenzo_Lippi_011.jpg Rinaldo in the enchanted forest (1647/1650), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Wien. - PoussinPoussinPoussin refers to:*Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian mathematician*Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian geologist and mineralogist, father of Charles Jean*Nicolas Poussin , French painter...
's illustration to Jerusalem Delivered (1630s): Two versions of the "Tancred and Erminia" subject exist from c.1630. The first is in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the second in the Barber Institute of Fine ArtsBarber Institute of Fine ArtsThe Barber Institute of Fine Arts is an art gallery and concert hall in Birmingham, England. It is situated in purpose-built premises on the campus of the University of Birmingham....
, Birmingham. - Theodor HildebrandtTheodor HildebrandtTheodor Hildebrandt , German painter, was born at Stettin .He was a disciple of the painter Schadow, and, on Schadow's appointment to the presidency of a new academy in the Rhenish provinces in 1828, followed that master to Düsseldorf...
- Tancred and Clorinda (ca. 1830) - Robert SeymourRobert Seymour (illustrator)Robert Seymour was a British illustrator. Seymour is known for his illustrations of the works of Charles Dickens and for his caricatures.-Early years:...
- Jerusalem Delivered, with over 100 figures, exhibited at the Royal AcademyRoyal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, London 1822. - Eugène DelacroixEugène DelacroixFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
- Clorinda Rescues Olindo and Sophronia - François BoucherFrançois BoucherFrançois Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
- Rinaldo and Armida - Francesco HayezFrancesco HayezFrancesco Hayez was an Italian painter, the leading artist of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories and exceptionally fine portraits.-Biography:...
- Rinaldo and Armida - Paolo FinoglioPaolo Domenico FinogliaPaolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio, was an Italian painter of the early-Baroque period, active mainly in South Italy, including Naples and towns in Apulia....
- The pictorial series Jerusalem Delivered (1640) - Gian Battista Tiepolo - Rinaldo Enchanted by Armida, 1742/45, Art Institute of Chicago
- Gian Battista Tiepolo http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovanni_Battista_Tiepolo_050.jpgRinaldo leaves Armida, Villa Valmarana, VicenzaVicenzaVicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...
- Domenico Tintoretto - Tancred Baptizing Clorinda, 1586—1600, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
