Created in 1686, Armide was the last collaboration between Lully and the poet Philippe Quinault. It immediately became a pillar of the repertoire and was only withdrawn in 1766, sidelined by a new wave of composers: Philidor, Grétry, Gossec and soon Gluck... A few attempts to restore the old taste made it possible to hear works such as Persée, revived in 1770. The works were thoroughly revised in order to highlight the instrumentalists of the orchestra and to adapt them to the singers of the moment. This is the context of the fascinating, unpublished Armide, which has been dormant in the Bibliothèque nationale for more than two centuries. The alterations were made by Louis-Joseph Francoeur, nephew of the famous François Francoeur, one of the official musicians of the court of Louis XV. More than just a performance, the recording of Armide in its 1778 version, made at the Arsenal Cité Musicale-Metz in collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, is in fact a premiere, since not a single page has ever been played. It allows us to understand a century of French music through its practices and ideas.


CD 1.
1-13 Act I
14-27 Act II
CD 2.
1-10 Act III
11-24 Act IV
25-36 Act V

Book-CD.
Contains 2 CDs.
Total duration: 02:17:08