Glimmerglass: 'Armide'

Lully, Armide, G. Laurens, H. Crook, V. Gens, Collegium Vocale, La Chapelle Royale, P. Herreweghe

Charles T. Downey, Glimmerglass scores with a colorful, sumptuous “Armide” (The Classical Review, July 29)

Baroque opera, thankfully, is flourishing at the Glimmerglass Festival. The willingness to stage operas from the century and a half before Mozart — Monteverdi, Handel, Purcell, Gluck, and Cavalli have all been featured since 1994 — is part of what brought the company to greater prominence.

The name of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) was added to that list this year, with a sumptuously beautiful staging of Armide, heard Sunday afternoon, that was the high point of an otherwise mixed season. The production was imported from Toronto’s Opera Atelier and its fine Baroque ballet company, a smart decision for the realization of the ballet music, so crucial to the Lullian style.

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Jean-Baptiste Lully, Armide (new critical edition by Lois Rosow, 2003)
With Peggy Kriha Dye, Colin Ainsworth, Atelier Ballet
Directed by Marshall Pynkoski
Glimmerglass Festival and Atelier Opera

This production continues through August 23.

SEE ALSO:
Heidi Waleson, Cooperstown Home Run (Wall Street Journal, July 31)

David Abrams, Lully: Armide (Musical Criticism, July 29)

Mike Silverman, Waterboarding 'Aida,' buoyant 'Music Man' (Associated Press, July 16)