Robert McPherson

Stage director Mariame Clément takes a critical look at the Crusades with her 2015 production of Rossini’s rarely-performed Armida. Premiered on November 11, 1817 at Naples’s Teatro di San Carlo, the three-act opera tells the tale of a cunning sorceress who manipulates a group of knights defending Jerusalem to abandon their posts and cast aside their noble and heroic ideals.

The Biblical story of Belshazzar's hubristic arrogance, set against the valour of the young warrrior-leader Cyrus, provided the 20-year-old Rossini with a dramatic story enriched by West-Eastern implications which still speak to us today. For the title role of Cyrus, Rossini wrote what would be his longest-ever contralto role, to which the great Rossini singer Ewa Podles´ is both naturally attracted and ideally suited. She is partnered by two young stars of Rossini singing, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres, and a conductor-scholar, Will Crutchfield, of great experience and sympathy. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.