Armida (Salieri)

Armida by Antonio Salieri was premiered as a dramma per musica in 3 acts on June 2, 1771 Vienna Burgtheater. The work is based on a text by Marco Coltellini based on the Armida substance of the work of Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso.

Armida was one of the first major works of Salieri that have been publicly performed. In this remarkable piece Salieri confesses for the first time to the reforms of his mentor and friend Christoph Willibald Gluck. The work shows an almost through-composed form; noteworthy are numerous choruses and a highly integrated into the ballet. A history of music innovation is Salieri's Sinfonia is prefixed in Pantomima, in which he attempts to make the history of the opera plot tonmalerisch and thus an inseparable unit with the opera forms - in stark contrast to the then largely usual arbitrariness of many overtures. The work is scored exceptionally colored, the orchestral part appears quite sophisticated; also the characteristic sound of the Vienna that time rather uncustomary trombones is used effectively.

The work spread to the successful premiere rapidly throughout Europe; it was ( among other things also into Danish ) played in numerous translations and published early on by Carl Friedrich Cramer Piano. It also retains some music machines, the individual numbers of the opera gave the best. Due to the success of this opera, Salieri was offered a position at the progressive set Gustavian Opera in Stockholm, he accepted a call to Sweden but - probably at the instigation of Emperor Joseph II - not to. Among the countless admirers of the play also included Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.