The English libretto, also written by Weir, is loosely based on the story of Rinaldo and Armida, in Torquato Tasso's 1581 epic poem set in the First Crusade, La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered).
In Weir's 50-minute-long opera, the setting is updated to a modern Middle-East conflict which alludes to but never specifically mentions the Iraq War.
Armida, Tasso's beautiful Muslim sorceress, becomes a high-powered television journalist, equally conflicted by her profession as a war reporter in her occupied country.
The instrumental score was written for bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, percussion, piano and strings[2] and was performed in the premiere by The Continuum Ensemble conducted by Philip Headlam.
[4] The world stage premiere of Armida was February 2019 in Manchester at the Martin Harris Centre, with students of the university portraying the characters.