Armida

ABOUT THE EVENT

After the success of the fairy-tale opera Rusalka, Antonín Dvořák was looking for another opera libretto that he could compose music for.

The libretto titled Armida by Jaroslav Vrchlický was chosen, which works with a plot from the medieval crusades based on Jerusalem Delivered, a 1580 epos by the renaissance poet Torquato Tasso, which had been set to music many times (Lully, Gluck, Haydn, Rossini). The moving romance between the sorceress Armida and crusader Rinaldo captured Dvořák’s attention just as the exotic setting that had allowed him to bring up striking oriental tones, unheard before. This unjustly neglected Dvořák’s opera masterpiece is returning to Pilsen after long eighty years.

CREATORS

Musical arrangement: Norbert Baxa
Conductors: Norbert Baxa / Jakub Zicha
Directed by: Martin Otava
Direction cooperation: Monika Hliněnská
Stage Design and Costumes: Hartmut Schörghofer

PERSONS AND ACTORS

Hydraot, král Damašku: Jozef Benci / Jevhen Šokalo
Armida, jeho dcera: Libuše Santorisová / Ivana Veberová
Ismen, vládce Sýrie: Andrii Kharlamov
Rinald, rytíř: Aleš Briscein / Jakub Pustina
Bohumír, vůdce křižácké výpravy: Jiří Brückler / Jakub Hliněnský
and others