Armida (Dvořák)

Armida is an opera by Antonín Dvořák in four acts, set to a libretto by Jaroslav Vrchlický that was originally based on Torquato Tasso's epic La Gerusalemme liberata. Dvořák's opera was first performed at Prague's National Theatre on 25 March 1904; the score was published as Opus 115 in 1941.

While Armida represents the culmination of Dvořák's experimentation with a Wagnerian style of opera composition, much of the music is in Dvořák's personal style. Vrchlický's libretto parallels the one that Philippe Quinault wrote for Jean-Baptiste Lully in their opera of the same name. Despite three love-duets for Armida and Rinald, their characters are sketchily motivated. Dvořák, determined "to write a big role for Růžena Maturová, his first Rusalka and first Princess in The Devil and Kate" provides her with "the best music, including a gorgeous entrance aria in which she describes dreaming of being a gazelle hunted by a handsome knight".