Espejo, deseo y simulacrola magia de Arminda

Resum

Enchantresses and seductresses are among women who tell "wise words". Armida, Torquato Tasso's character, inspired by Circe, Dido or Medea, masters not only occult wisdom but also seduction techniques, that is to say psychology and rhetoric. After going again over the poetic premises of the Gerusalemme liberata, the essay analyses this female magician in three concrete scenes marked by the presence of a mirror or of an object which works as such. The equation identity-desire is set out in a different form in these three scenes. The first part of the work tackles the original poem; the second, the operas inspired by it. The comparison highlights the way the scene has tended to simplify Tasso's overcomplex character. In the final part, it is suggested the trregularity in the reception of Armida - its success in the 17th and 18th centuries and the subsequent relative eclipse , to end with a recent staging, Lully's "Armide" by Robert Carsen, that allows to realise the affinity between Baroque time and the present.