Talk:Renaud de Montauban

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Is the description of the plot correct? Charlemagne was centuries before the crusades...I can imagine the author of the chanson played around with history (as it seems to have been written during the height of the crusades), but I just wanted to check. Adam Bishop 02:08, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Yes, it is. Renaud has to go to Palestine to seek to deliver the Holy Sepulchre. The poem was written in the late 1100s at the earliest, at a time when the Crusades were well underway. It may have been meant to promote them. -- Smerdis of Tlön 02:57, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Renaud

Is this the same Renaud that caught the eye of Armide?

Yes, more or less. My recollection is that this episode comes from Tasso's elaboration of the story of Renaud's trip to Palestine in Jerusalem Delivered; it does not figure in the twelfth century versions. Didn't Handel do an opera of this? Smerdis of Tlön 13:46, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Actually, no. The Rinaldo of Jerusalem Delivered is a descendant of the real Azzo II, count of Este and father of Welf I Duke of Bavaria. Is is speculated that Azzo II had another son named Bertoldo, who is the father of Rinaldo. According to legend, Azzo II is descended from Bradamante, Rinaldo of Montalban's sister.

[edit] Operas based on Renaud's encounter with Armide

Thank you for the clarification. I am not sure if Handel used this story. Louis XIV selected this story to be made into an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully with text by Philippe Quinault. Christoph Willibald Gluck later used Quinault's text, minus the dialogue intended to flatter the Sun King, for his own opera. In addition to Lully and Gluck, composers that have used this story for opera include Joseph Haydn, Gioachino Rossini, and Antonin Dvorak. At least, this is what I read at the Lully Web Project [1].