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That was a silly opera. It was a lot of fun, but what a silly story. I'm sure it was written to be serious hundreds of years ago and it probably didn't help that on one side, I had ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaefru giggling about all the silly and to the other, a dear family friend, a woman in her sixties if not seventies, giggling about how nice the dancers looked in their tights. I could not be expected to take Armide seriously under such conditions.
The short synopsis is that Armide, a young Warrior Princess of Damascus, enchants a fearless Christian knight (and her enemy) in order to slay him. Instead, they fall in love with each other. She has lots of dealings with demons and spirits and Love (or l'Amour, as he's credited) spends quite a bit of time prancing about on stage. Finally, however, the duties from which she tore her lover pull him back and away from her. In her disapointed anger and rage (she missed the - I really do care! part of his speech, having fainted), destroys her own Kingdom. The show was in French, but between bad accents and the general distortion of a language when translated into Opera, I was still grateful for all the subtitles.
This opera is classified as a psychological thriller, but I don't think the banquet tables were a part of those two dancer's costumes when it was put on back in the seventeenth century. I do not think the two knights who eventually 'rescue' their fellow were supposed to "Eep" quite so comically either. But good lord were those two funny. That was very possibly the best scene of the whole show. (Because who does not enjoy castagnettes and bells and dancing?)
On the whole, the sets and costumes were gorgeous and the singers were fabulous, especially Armide. She had a lot of singing to do and performed it all admirably.jaefru and I particularily enjoyed the demon worship that the Muslims employed to ensare the good Christian. And the fact that Hate (credited as La Haine) had an earing was rather distracting. yubsie would have probably appreciated the generous and appropriate use of sparkles in, well, everything.
I also ran into a pile of people I knew. It is a terribly small world.
jaefru giggling about all the silly and to the other, a dear family friend, a woman in her sixties if not seventies, giggling about how nice the dancers looked in their tights. I could not be expected to take Armide seriously under such conditions.The short synopsis is that Armide, a young Warrior Princess of Damascus, enchants a fearless Christian knight (and her enemy) in order to slay him. Instead, they fall in love with each other. She has lots of dealings with demons and spirits and Love (or l'Amour, as he's credited) spends quite a bit of time prancing about on stage. Finally, however, the duties from which she tore her lover pull him back and away from her. In her disapointed anger and rage (she missed the - I really do care! part of his speech, having fainted), destroys her own Kingdom. The show was in French, but between bad accents and the general distortion of a language when translated into Opera, I was still grateful for all the subtitles.
This opera is classified as a psychological thriller, but I don't think the banquet tables were a part of those two dancer's costumes when it was put on back in the seventeenth century. I do not think the two knights who eventually 'rescue' their fellow were supposed to "Eep" quite so comically either. But good lord were those two funny. That was very possibly the best scene of the whole show. (Because who does not enjoy castagnettes and bells and dancing?)
On the whole, the sets and costumes were gorgeous and the singers were fabulous, especially Armide. She had a lot of singing to do and performed it all admirably.
jaefru and I particularily enjoyed the demon worship that the Muslims employed to ensare the good Christian. And the fact that Hate (credited as La Haine) had an earing was rather distracting. yubsie would have probably appreciated the generous and appropriate use of sparkles in, well, everything.I also ran into a pile of people I knew. It is a terribly small world.
