mainstage opera: armida by joseph haydn  (1784; Virginia Premiere)

NOVEMBER 1, 3 & 5, 2019

Belmont Arts Collaborative (221 Carlton Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22902)

Haydn’s greatest and most original opera, about a soldier gone AWOL in the crusades, gets the VHO treatment. Written for a travelling opera troupe in the 1780s, VHO tells this soldier’s tale of courage, conflict and confusion through the lens of the lives of our own opera troupe.

Featuring Emma McNairy (Armida), Victor Ryan Robertson (Rinaldo) and Will Ferguson (Ubaldo).

Directed by Miriam Gordon-Stewart

Conducted by Christine Brandes

Performed in a new chamber arrangement by Brenda Patterson.

Armida is generously sponsored by The Music Academy of the West 2019 Alumni Enterprise Award, The Virginia Commission for the Arts/ The National Endowment for the Arts, and by Artist Sponsor MarieBette Café and Bakery.