Note 16 — Chapter I · THE REGENERATION OF THE OPERA

Gluck declared that the music of Armide was intended ‘to give a voluptuous sensation,’ and La Harpe’s assertion that he had made Armide a sorceress rather than an enchantress, and that her part was ‘une criallerie monotone et fatigante,’ drew forth as bitter a reply from the composer as Wagner ever wrote to his critics.