Following its 1937 production of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris and Mozart's Clemenza di Tito in 1938, the Barony Musical Association's final effort before the war was devoted to another, rather grander, Gluck work, Armide, set to a wonderfully old-fashioned text produced a century earlier for Lully.
The grand scenic effects and spectacular ballets demanded by this scenario would have been beyond the company's budget, even if they could have been accommodated on the Lyric Theatre's intimate stage. But the press seems to have recognized a degree of achievement on all sides. A worthy effort and a work full of superb music.
The Herald review only allots singers to the two most important roles, Armide herself and her lover Renaud. Of the other soloists listed, several are familiar from earlier Barony or Glasgow Grand performances - sopranos Elise Lyle and Catherine Gilmour, tenor Thomas Reid, baritone William Dickie and bass William Noble. Some of the other roles, at least, can be allocated with fair hope of accuracy. The remaining two, Colina McDougall and Aitken King, are otherwise unknown, though it seems likely that the former, if a contralto, would have sung the short but important role of La Haîne (Hatred). These details are subject to revision if further information comes to light.
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