Armide by Lully, From (2024/2024), Directed by Florent Siaud, Conductor Fransesco Corti, Drottningholms Slottsteater, Stockholm, Sweden

Armide is the pinnacle of French Baroque tragédie en musique, and the culmination of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s career. Since its premiere in 1686, Armide has been regarded as the quintessential model of musical and poetic creation. Francesco Corti, conductor Armide is Lully’s last collaboration with the poet Philippe Quinault, whose libretto is a mixture of dramatic tension, supernatural elements and amorous despair. The work was an immediate success and was widely performed in the late 17th century. The opera contains many dance scenes in which the supernatural beings reflect the mental state of the main characters, who struggle with joy and horror, reality and fantasy. Armide is like Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, where the characters go through all the states of passion. Florent Siaud, director