Lully, Jean Baptiste. (1632–1687). Armide, tragedie mise en musique [LWV 71]- WITH EXTENSIVE MANUSCRIPT ALTERATIONS AND SIGNED WITH THE COMPOSER'S AUTOGRAPH PARAPH . Paris: Christophe Ballard. [1686]. First edition. Armide, tragedie mise en musique, par Monsieur de Lully, escuyer, conseiller, secretaire du Roy, maison, couronne de France & de ses finances, & sur-intendant de la musique de Sa Majesté. Upright folio (38 cm). [iv], lxij [i.e. lx], 271, [1] p. (complete). Unrealized figured bass. Black notation, set in movable type. Last page blank. Signed "Le Miere" [Lemière] in ink on the title page and with extensive notational alterations to the score throughout, written on 37 pp. including 4 pp. with changes to the text, and with additional 15 pp. marked with figured bass numbers, all in a contemporary or closely contemporary hand. The autograph paraph of the composer penned after the final bar of music, "Lully." Modern full leather binding with six raised bands. Scattered browning, one page with a small tear from bottom margin, final six leaves with a worm hole to upper right corner (margin), overall in fine condition. RISM L 2954.


Opera (tragédie) in 5 acts with prologue, the text by P. Quinault, based on Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata, the selection in 1685 of Lully's patron, Louis XIV, from among several offered by Quinault. Regarded as one of the composer's greatest masterpieces, the opera was first performed at l’Opéra, Paris, 15 February 1686.


Roughly eight decades following Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Lully produced Armide with his longtime collaborator, playwright Jean-Philippe Quinault. Together they had developed the genre of 'tragédie en musique' or 'tragédie lyrique', which served as a new form of opera, combining elements of classical French drama with ballet, the French song tradition, and a new form of recitative. Armide was one of Lully’s last operas and is therefore extremely developed in style. Unlike most of his operas, Armide concentrates on the sustained psychological development of a single character.


The soprano Marie-Jeanne Lemière is known to have performed Armide in the 1761 revival supervised by Francoeur. Though Francoeur heavily revised the work and Lemiere would therefore not have used this score towards those performances, this is most possibly her copy.