Armida - Traetta, Salieri and Righini in Vienna

Armida - Traetta, Salieri and Righini in ViennaNo other musical genre has provoked as much vehement discussion throughout its history as opera. This study is a historical and musical narrative about a certain genre of operas, exemplified by three treatments of the same subject, created in the same city over a span of about twenty years. The subject is the love story of Armida and Rinaldo, taken from Tassos Gerusalemme liberata. The location is Vienna, in the second half of the eighteenth century,

No other musical genre has provoked as much vehement discussion throughout its history as opera. This study is a historical and musical narrative about a certain genre of operas, exemplified by three treatments of the same subject, created in the same city over a span of about twenty years. The subject is the love story of Armida and Rinaldo, taken from TassoÕs Gerusalemme liberata. The location is Vienna, in the second half of the eighteenth century, and genre is Viennese Italian reform operas.
The three works are TraettaÕs Armida, libretto by Durazzo and Miglivacca (1761), SalieriÕs Armida, text by Coltellini (1771), and the Armida of Righini (1782), text by Coltellini as well.
The purpose of such a study is not only to add information to the coffers of eighteenth-century opera scholarship, but also to explore the complex relationship between text and music in this sub-genre of opera, in particular the alliance of specific keys with different textual themes, and musical features.