List of operas set in the Crusades

Operas set against the background of the medieval Crusades can be found in the earliest examples of the art form and continue to be written into the 21st century. Many of the works listed here contain characters and plots based on real or legendary figures of the time such as Tancred, Prince of Galilee, Godfrey of Bouillon or Jaufre Rudel. The majority are set, at least in part, in the Holy Land and the surrounding region and deal with the conflicts between the Christians and Muslims. Others, such as Donizetti's "Gabriella di Vergy", deal with the misadventures of knights returning from the Crusades. In the case of "Gabriella di Vergy", Raoul de Coucy returns from the Third Crusade to find that his beloved Gabriella has married Lord Fayel. Following a duel, Fayel cuts out the heart of the unfortunate Raoul and presents it in an urn to Gabriella. The only comedy in the list, Rossini's "Le comte Ory", recounts the attempts by Ory and his friends to seduce the Countess of Formoutiers and the women of her household while their men are away at the Crusades. Ory's ploy of dressing up as nuns to gain access to the women is foiled when the Crusaders return. Many of the libretti for the operas listed are based either directly or indirectly on Torquato Tasso's epic poem, "La Gerusalemme liberata" ("Jerusalem Delivered"), or on Voltaire's tragic play, "Zaïre".
Literary sources.
Torquato Tasso's 1581 epic poem "La Gerusalemme liberata" and Voltaire's 1732 play, "Zaïre" were the sources for the majority of operas in this list and are described in more detail below. Other literary works which have served as the basis for operas on the Crusades include: 1735 mock epic poem, "Il Ricciardetto"; Dormont De Belloy's 1777 play, "Gabrielle de Vergy"; Jean-Antoine-Marie Monperlier's 1813 play "Les Chevaliers de Malte" (The Knights of Malta); August von Kotzebue's 1820 play "Die Kreuzfahrer" (The Crusaders); Sir Walter Scott's 1825 novel, "The Talisman"; and Tommaso Grossi's 1826 epic poem "I Lombardi alla prima crociata" (The Lombards in the First Crusade).
Tasso's "La Gerusalemme liberata".
At least one hundred operas have been inspired by Tasso's "La Gerusalemme liberata" ("Jerusalem Delivered"). He began writing it while still a schoolboy and finished it in 1575 when he was thirty. The first complete editions were published in Parma and Ferrara in 1581. The main characters are a mixture of historical figures and ones invented by Tasso. Of the poem's main characters below, the invented Rinaldo and Armida, are the most frequent operatic characters. Their love story, primarily recounted in Canto XVI, is one of the most famous episodes in "La Gerusalemme liberata" and has alone served as the theme for over fifty operas as well as many paintings. Apart from Tancredi, the historically based characters tend to have relatively minor roles in operas based on the poem.
Goffredo is Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the military leaders of the First Crusade and later ruler of Jerusalem. (The original title of "La Gerusalemme liberata" was "Il Goffredo".)
Pietro l'eremita is Peter the Hermit, the spiritual leader of The People's Crusade.
Tancredi is Tancred, Prince of Galilee, a Norman knight who became the ruler of Galilee and Antioch. He and Gaston IV of Béarn claimed to be the first Crusaders to enter Jerusalem when the city fell on 15 July 1099. In the poem, Tancredi falls in love with Clorinda and in turn is loved by both Clorinda and Erminia.
Rinaldo (fictional) is a valiant Christian knight. In the story, he is an ancestor of the House of Este, a compliment paid to Tasso's patron Alfonso II d'Este the Duke of Ferrara. Rinaldo shares the name (but not the identity) of an earlier Christian knight, Rinaldo di Montalbano who was a character in Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso". After escaping Armida's enchantment, he seeks penance on the Mount of Olives for having abandoned his Christian duty for love and participates in the final assault on Jerusalem.
Armida (fictional) is a beautiful highborn woman from Damascus and a sorceress. Her grandfather (Idraote), the ruler of the city was also a sorcerer. She uses her beauty and her magic to enchant the Christian knights and sow discord amongst them. After spiriting Rinaldo away to her magic isle, they fall in love. When Rinaldo comes to his senses and leaves her to return to battle, she becomes suicidal. Her character has elements of both Homer's Circe and Ariosto's Alcina.
Erminia (fictional) is the daughter of the Muslim King of Antioch (Cassano) who was killed by the Crusaders when they conquered the city. Tancredi nevertheless treats her with honour and protects her, causing Erminia to fall in love with him. When Tancredi is wounded in battle and on the verge of death, she abandons her people and comes over to the Christian side, curing him with special herbs.
Clorinda (fictional) is a warrior-princess, fighting on the side of the Muslims. Unbeknownst to her, she is actually the daughter of the Christian King of Ethiopia. She was born white, an extraordinary fact attributed to her having been conceived beneath a painting of Saint George. Fearing that the dark-skinned King would not believe this explanation, Clorinda's mother had the child taken to Egypt by her servant (Arsete), where she was raised a Muslim. Clorinda and Tancredi fall in love, but ultimately meet in battle during the final assault on Jerusalem, although they don't recognize each other beneath their armour. Clorinda is killed by Tancredi, and dying in his arms asks him to baptize her.
Sofronia and Olindo (fictional) are young Christian lovers living in Jerusalem before its fall to the Crusaders. When the Muslim ruler of the city, Aladino, orders a persecution the Christians, they are sent for execution. Clorinda takes pity on them and rescues them as they are about to be burnt at the stake.
Argante (fictional) is a hot-headed Saracen warrior and an emissary of the King of Egypt and King Aladino. He is eventually slain by Tancredi.
Ismene (fictional) is a powerful sorcerer in the service of King Aladino. At one point Ismene convinces Aladino to steal an icon of the Virgin Mary and hang it in a mosque, where he can cast a spell on it.
Voltaire's "Zaïre".
Voltaire's "Zaïre" ("The Tragedy of Zara") was given its first public performance on 13 August 1732 by the Comédie française at the Théâtre de la rue des Fossés Saint-Germain. It was a great success with the Paris audiences and marked a turning away from tragedies caused by a fatal flaw in the protagonist's character to ones based on pathos. The tragic fate of its heroine is caused not through any fault of her own, but by the jealousy of her lover and the intolerance of her fellow Christians. Voltaire ostensibly set the play in the "Epoch of Saint Louis". However, the plot and characters are largely fiction. The historical characters alluded to, members of the Lusignan and Châtillon families, were related to events of the Crusades but not alive at the time of Louis IX.
The characters' names in the original French are:
The play's melodramatic plot and a setting that appealed to the orientalism in vogue in late-18th- and early-19th-century Europe made it popular with opera composers. "Zaïre" has been the inspiration for at least thirteen operas. One of the earliest operatic adaptations was Peter Winter's "Zaire" which premiered in 1805 at The King's Theatre in London with the famous Italian contralto, Giuseppina Grassini, in the title role. Bellini's 1829 "Zaira", also based on the play, was expressly written for the inauguration of the Teatro Regio di Parma but was a failure on the opening night and has been rarely performed since then. Johann Andreas Schachtner's libretto for Mozart's unfinished opera "Zaïde", was based largely on a 1778 singspiel, "The Seraglio, or The Unexpected Reunion of Father, Daughter and Son in Slavery". However, both appear to have been significantly influenced by the plot and themes of "Zaïre" which had been performed in Salzburg as late as 1777.
List of operas.
The earliest work on this list, "Rinaldo innamorato" by Francesca Caccini, dates from 1623 when opera was still in its infancy and performed only in private palaces or court theatres. During this period operas co-existed with other forms of music drama which featured virtuoso singing – the "intermedio" (a short spectacle performed between the acts of a play with its own story-line) and the "madrigale concertato" (literally "concerted madrigal", a dramatic composition for voices and instruments, often performed semi-staged). Several works in those genres were also based on Tasso's "La Gerusalemme liberata", including:
The operas below are listed in chronological order by the date of their first performance. Where this is unavailable, or the opera premiered many years after the composer's death, the date of composition is given.