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Gluck - Armide / Delunsch, Workman, Naouri, Podles, Beuron, Polegato, Kozena, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski | 
 enlarge | Artists: Christoph Willibald Gluck, Mireille Delunsch, Charles Workman, Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens Du Louvre, Ewa Podles, Laurent Naouri, Francoise Masset, Nicole Heaston, Yann Beuron, Vincent Le Texier, Brett Polegato, Valerie Gabail, Magdalena Kozena, Thierry Gregoire, Jean-christophe Hurtaud, Sandrine Rondot, Eric Vignau, Marcos Loureiro De Sa, Myriam Sosson, Claire Delgado-boge
Label: Archiv Prod Import
Category: Music
List Price: $34.98
Buy New: $26.23
You Save: $8.75 (25%)
New (21) Used (13) from $19.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 171252
Format: Box Set, Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 1
UPC: 028945961620
EAN: 0028945961620
ASIN: B000026BO7
Release Date: March 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Armide: Ouverture | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 1 - Duo: Dans un jour de triomphe (Phenice, Sidonie) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 1 - Air: Je ne triomphe pas (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 1 - Duo: Qu'importe qu'un captif manque (Sidonie, Phenice) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 1 - Air et Recitatif: Les enfers ont predit cent fois - Un songe affreux (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 1 - Air: Vous troublez-vous d'une image legere (Sidonie) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 2 - Introduction et Recitatif: Armide, que le sang qui m'unit avec vous (Hidraot) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 2 - Air: Je vois de pres la mort (Hidraot) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 2 - Air: La chaine de l'hymen m' etonne (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 2 - Air: Pour vous, quand il vous plait (Hidraot) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 2 - Recitatif: Contre mes ennemis (Armide, Hidraot) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 2 - Air: Si je dois m' engager un jour (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 3 - Choeur et Soli: Armide est encor plus aimable - Nos ennemis - Suivons Armide, et chantons (Coryphees, Hidraot, peuples de Damas, Phenice, Sidonie) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 3 - Andante | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 4 - Soli et Choeur: O ciel! O disgrace cruelle! (Aronte, Armide, Hidraot, Sidonie, Phenice, peuples de Damas) | | • | Armide: Act I: Scene 4 - Choeur: Poursuivons jusqu' au trepas (Armide, Sidonie, Phenice, Hidraot, Aronte, peuples de Damas) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 1 - Introduction et Recitatif: Invincible heros (Artemidore, Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 1 - Air: Le repos me fait violence - Duo: Fuyez les lieux ou regne Armide - Air: J'aime la liberte (Renaud, Artemidore, Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 2 - Introduction et Recitatif: Arretons-nous ici (Hidraot, Armide) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 2 - Duo: Esprits de haine et de rage - Recitatif: Dans le piege fatal notre ennemi s'engage (Armide, Hidraot) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 3 - Air: Plus j'observe ces lieux (Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 4 - Trio: Au temps heureux ou l' on sait plaire (Une Naiade, deux coryphees en echo) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 4 - Choeur avec danse: Ah! Quelle erreur, quelle folie (Coryphees) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 4 - Moderato | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 4 - Air: On s' etonnerait moins (Une Bergere) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 4 - Choeur avec danse: Ah! Quelle erreur, quelle folie (Nymphes, bergers, bergeres) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 5 - Introduction et Recitatif: Enfin, il est en ma puissance (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 5 - Air: Ah! Quelle cruaute de lui ravir le jour (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act II: Scene 5 - Air: Venez, secondez mes desirs (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 1 - Air: Ah! Si la liberte me doit etre ravie (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 2 - Duo et Recitatif: Que ne peut point votre art? - Votre amitie dans mon sort s'interesse (Phenice, Sidonie, Armide) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 2 - Air: De mes plus doux regards Renaud sut se defendre (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 2 - Trio: Que votre art serait beau! (Phenice, Sidonie, Armide) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 3 - Air: Venez, venez, Haine implacable! (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 4 - Recitatif: Je reponds a tes voeux (La Haine) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 4 - Air et Choeur: Plus on connait l' amour (La Haine, la suite de la Haine) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 4 - Andante | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 4 - Air et Choeur: Amour, sors pour jamais (La Haine, la suite de la Haine) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 4 - Introduction, Soli et Choeur: Sors, sors du sein d' Armide (La Haine, Armide, la suite de la Haine) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 4 - Solo er Choeur: Suis l' amour, puisque tu le veux (La Haine, la suite de la Haine) | | • | Armide: Act III: Scene 5 - Air: O ciel! Quelle horrible menace (Armide) |
Disc 2
| • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 1: Duo: Nous ne trouvons partout que des gouffres - Recitatif: Allons chercher Renaud (La Chevalier danois, Ubalde) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 1: Duo: Redoublons nos soins - Recitatif: On voit d'ici le sejour enchante (Ubalde, le Chevalier danois) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 2: Air et Choeur: Voici la charmante retraite (Lucinde, demons) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 2: Musette - Second Air - Musette | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 2: Recitatif: Allons, qui vous retient encore? (Ubalde, le Chevalier danois) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 2: Trio: Enfin je vois l' amant (Lucinde, le Chevalier danois, Ubalde) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 2: Ce sceptre d'or peut dissiper une erreur - Duo: Je tourne en vain les yeux de toutes parts (Ubalde) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 4: Trio: D'ou vient que vous vous detournez (Melisse, Ubalde, le Chevalier danois) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 4: Trio: Pourquoi faut-il encor m'arracher mon amant? (Melisse, Ubalde, le Chevalier danois) | | • | Armide: Act IV: Scene 4: Duo: Fuyons les douceurs dangereuses (Ubalde, le Chevalier danois) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 1: Introduction et Recitatif: Armide, vous m'allez quitter! (Renaud, Armide) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 1: Duo: D' une vaine terreur pouvez-vous etre atteinte (Renaud, Armide) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 1: Duo Aimons nous - Recitatif: Temoins de notre amour extreme (Armide, Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 2: Chaconne | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 2: Solo et Choeur: Les Plaisirs ont choisi pour aile (Un Plaisir, choeur des Plaisirs) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 2: Solo et Choeur: C'est l'amour qui retient dans ses chaines (Un Plaisir, choeur des Plaisirs) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 2: Gracieux | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 2: Solo et Choeur: Jeunes coeurs (Un Plaisir, choeur des Plaisirs) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 2: Air sicilien | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 2: Air: Allez, eloignez-vous de moi (Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 3: Recitatif Il est seul (Ubalde, Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 3: Trio: Notre general vous appelle (Ubalde, Renaud, le Chevalier danois) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 4: Recitatif: Renaud! Ciel! O mortelle peine! (Armide, Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 4: Trio: Il faut partir (Le Chevalier danois, Ubalde, Renaud) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 5: Air: Le perfide Renaud me fuit (Armide) | | • | Armide: Act V: Scene 5: Recitatif et Postlude: Quand le barbare etait en ma puissance (Armide) |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
Gluck, Quinault, what more could you want? August 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It seems to be the general consensus that Armide, while quite good, is not Gluck's strongest work. While that could be true, it certainly is my favorite opera by that composer, and it is extraordinarily performed here. When I bought this, I had was not overly familiar with Gluck's works, having heard 'Paride ed Elena', which is a masterpiece in itself, and is perhaps the most "French" of all of Gluck's Italian operas, as well as the somewhat uninspired recording of 'Iphigenie en Tauride' done by Boston Baroque and Pearlmann. I was also, at that time, unfamiliar with the operas of Lully, Rameau, and even Handel. This, however, inspired me to look into those composers, and now, I would say, after hearing other works by Gluck, that this is the closest work by him to those of French composers, such as Rameau and Francoeur. But there are some significant differences, namely that unlike Francoeur, with whom Gluck differed only sixteen years in age, Gluck followed the neoclassical model of composition, as opposed to the baroque/rococo styles of Francoeur, Rameau, and Mondonville, another French composer of that time. This never actually occurred to me until I heard the recent recording of Francoeur's opera 'Pirame et Thisbe', which was originally composed in 1726, but revived in 1771, six years before Armide saw its premiere. And yet that work is perhaps closer to Gluck's opera than anything by Rameau. But there is a significant gap, and it would be nice to hear those works which fill it, although there might not be any hope of that. Anyway, Armide is quite different from anything by Gluck that I've heard, and I don't seem to know where to look for anything else quite like it. However, if you enjoy Lully, Rameau, or any other French baroque composers you may well like this. But it also seems something like Mozart in a very bizarre way, but significantly less so than 'Orfeo ed Euridice' or 'Iphigenie en Aulide'. And it does make one regret that Gluck didn't set other libretti by Quinault, such as 'Atys' or 'Persee'.
Brilliant new take on Quinault's libretto September 18, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I owned the Philippe Herreweghe / La Chapelle Royale recording of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Tragedie lyrique, 'Armide', long before I bought Minkowski's recording of Gluck's opera. I was eager to learn what Christoph Willibald von Gluck would do with Philippe Quinault's libretto nearly one hundred years later. I think the differences are interesting. Of course, Gluck dropped the prologue, and Gluck's orchestra is considerably different from the one employed by Lully.
In both operas the role of Armide is sung by a soprano and the role of Renaud is sung by an haute-contre (tenor) voice.
I have listened to both operas extensively and I cannot honestly say which one I prefer. The Gluck opera owes a clear debt to Rameau and his experiences in Opera Seria. Lully's work is a masterpiece and it contains music of incredible richness and expressiveness.
Buy both, if possible.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES October 9, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's possible to get a strong sense that this opera improves as it goes along. That's been my own experience with it, but it's not so easy to account for why. The best I can come up with is that it's not the performance that gives me this feeling but partly the music itself and above all the libretto.
The story seems to me to break cleanly into two distinct parts, the second part starting at act IV. From this point on we have abandoned Damascus and Christian armies and been spirited away to an enchanted island. Apart from the two principals Armide and Renaud (Rinaldo) acts IV and V have an almost completely new cast from the previous acts, and Armide has changed roles from being a powerful sorceress to being just another heroine spurned in love, a kind of downmarket Dido who finally just magicks herself away leaving the rest of them to their own devices, the Christian armies that the earlier acts were supposed to have been about literally nowhere. This in turn highlights two separate sides of the composer's personality - the dramatist and the composer of tableaux. He excelled in both capacities, but it may have been a bit much to expect him to switch from the former role (in the earlier acts) to the latter within the limits of a single work. Gluck was a musical rationalist and reformer, but also a musical politician and in-fighter, and I suspect that in Armide the two sides to his musical personality come into conflict to a certain extent, with the tableau-composer coming out on top. Keen to establish himself in Paris, he took over the traditional libretto used by Lully, involving a lot in the way of ballet-music and set-pieces in the later acts. Whether he would have done this given a freer hand and fewer entrenched interests to placate, I rather doubt. On the other hand, he was very good at that sort of thing, and I feel simply that his best inspiration belongs in these later acts, the gem of the whole work being a long aria for Renaud. This is not to say that there is not a lot of fine stuff in acts I-III as well, the jewel of those being another aria for Renaud, just that these acts are not, by and large, quite the greatest Gluck.
The challenge for the interpreters, on this view, is how to handle the first three acts. The excellent liner-essay tells us about a performance from Toscanini that failed, seemingly because the performers tried to ham up the music as if it were Verdi. If so, that was asking for disaster - this music is not at that kind of voltage, and Minkowski knows better than to treat it as if it were. Taking it for what it is, I would say they all do a first-class job. The cast are largely francophone, and the two Americans sing their French very convincingly too, which is particularly important in the case of Workman as Renaud as he seems to me to get the best music in the entire opera. The direction throughout shows admirable taste and sense of proportion - the demons for instance are very urbane and well-behaved demons, the kind of demons you could safely invite to dinner, and I am astonished that Gluck doesn't try to make any kind of effect out of the diamond shield. Brahms is not known as a musical dramatist and his Rinaldo is one of his less-performed works, but his treatment of the moment in Goethe's text when the diamond shield is displayed is simply awesome.
We are in safe hands with Minkowski in music of this period. Period instruments are of course used, and the scale of the performance is judged exactly. If the earlier acts seem less dramatic than they might have been, my feeling is that that is down to the music not to the performers, who know what to avoid. Armide is not Gluck's greatest work, but it's very fine one and this is a set I wouldn't have wanted to miss. To what extent it will suit other listeners I have no way of knowing, but I have tried to make coherent sense of how it all comes across to me.
Gluck's Armide March 16, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
To modern music lovers, Gluck is best-known for his Orpheus and Euridice and, to a lesser extent, for Alceste. But he was also the composer of other operas which deserve to be remembered. Among these operas is Armide, which Gluck composed in 1777 for the Paris Opera. (By that time, he had revised his earlier versions of Orpheus and Alceste for staging in Paris.) In setting Armide, Gluck took the liberetto written by Phillipe Quinault which had been used by the great French composer Lully in his opera, Armide, presented in 1686. Thus, Gluck was deliberately setting himself in competition with the earlier master. After Gluck's opera, other composers have set the Armide story, including Haydn in an opera and Brahms in a cantata, Renaldo.
This CD of Armide features the musicians of the Louvre conducted by Marc Minkowski and a distinguished cast of singers. Mr. Minkowski specializes in early music with an emphasis on scores and composers that have not received the attention they deserve. We are fortunate to have CD's readily accessible to explore Gluck's Armide. The work comes through in this release with intensity and passion.
Armide is a story of the power of love and of the war between love and hate. The heroine, Armide, is a sorceress who has just defeated an army of Christian crusaders. She values her freedom and declines to marry unless to a man who can defeat the crusader's hero, Renauld. In the course of the story, Armide casts a spell on Renauld to make him, for a time, love her. But, unfortunately for Armide, she falls in love with Renauld totally and unconditionally. Renauld is ultimately rescued and abandons Armide who bewails her loss mightily and destroys the magic palace she had built for herself and Renaud.
Gluck was known for attempting to integrate text and music into an artistic whole rather than for indulging in lengthy musical flourishes for their own sake. In Armide, he carries out his artistic programme in part. But there are long sections of dances, musical interludes, and scenes that have little dramatic intensity and which run counter to Gluck's austure style of composition. This is probably due in part to Gluck's decision to use, without editing, the early liberetto by Quinault which had been adopted to the different compositional style of Lully. (In the years between Lully and Gluck, some composers had tried to eliminate various portions of Quinault's text to speed-up the action. But Gluck took the original liberetto.)
Gluck's Armide is not often performed today, but it is a treasure. The heroine, Armide, is a great multi-faceted role with arias expressing the extremes of passionate love and deep hatred. The role is beautifully performed on this CD by Mirelle Dellunsch. There is a character in the opera titled "hate", -- hate personified with lengthy arias worthy of the Queen of the Night -- performed guttily and intensely by Ewa Poodles. Charles Workman is an effective Renauld, but this music belongs to the women leads.
The first and fifth acts of Gluck's Armide move with swift intensity while some of the more relaxed material is in act two and, particularly, in act four. For me, the most powerful musical moment of this score comes at the end of the opera in Armide's aria "La Perfide Renaud" which shows her fury at her abandonment by Renaud. Also in Act 5 is a beautiful duet between Armide and Renauld and an "Air Sicilien" featuring the solo flute. The scenes with Hate are stunning.
Gluck's Armide is a grand opera by a great composer. It will delight listeners willing to be adventurous as well as lovers of opera, early classical music, and passionate music. It is a joy to have this work available.
 Excellent performance of a neglected masterpiece July 22, 2004
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Having long admired Gluck, the one opera that was missing from my collection was "Armide," but I was not certain if this recording would bring out the dramatic side of his music. (So many modern, "historically-informed" performances of his music don't.) Upon listening, however, I felt that although the singers presented herein are mostly smaller-scale Handelians and Mozartians, they do indeed bring out some of the flavor of this fascinating work.
Unlike Gluck's "Alceste" or "Iphigenie en Tauride," "Armide" is less stark, less strophic, more melodic. One might almost describe it as "radical Mozart." Gluck seemed to be purposely striving here for an opera that was both inherently (which is to say, musically) dramatic and yet tuneful. The result is a delightful work in which recitatives, arias, ensembles and choruses slip seamlessly one into the other, much like the works of his Italian successor, Spontini.
Mark Minkowski drives this performance with incredible intensity from first note to last, and his singers are for the most part able and up to the task. Mirielle Delunsch and Charles Workman were particularly delightful, though the female supporting singers were likewise superb. Their voices are not only pretty and well-supported, but they understand the French style and have the characteristic "French vibrato" which adds to the color of the work. I was particularly struck by Renaud's lyrical, entrancing aria by the side of the stream, with its sparse yet piquant orchestration.
In 1909 Toscanini revived this opera at the Met with Olive Fremstad and Enrico Caruso, two singers known for having cannon-sized voices. I wonder how good it really was, though of course Fremstad was a real artist and capable of almost anything. Nevertheless, the opera did poorly at the box office, not because audiences thought it was tuneless but because it didn't have any held high notes for either principal. A pity; they definitely missed the point of this opera. Nevertheless, I only give this recording four stars instead of five because I would have liked a more dramatic and fully-delineated character out of Delunsch, and because some of the male supporting singers range from just acceptable to dreadful.
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