Clorinda (Jerusalem Delivered)

Clorinda is a fictional character appearing in Torquato Tasso's poem Jerusalem Delivered, first published in 1581.

Erminia, her companion, being herself enamoured of Tancred, then escaped Jerusalem in the guise of Clorinda, purposing to enter the Christian camp, but being surprised by a party of knights without, she fled and was lost in the forests.

During a night battle in which she sets the Christian siege tower on fire, she is killed by Tancredi, who does not recognise her in her armour and the darkness.

Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is an operatic scena for three voices by Claudio Monteverdi, dramatising the final fight, first performed in 1624, and popular since the revival of interest in early music in the mid-20th century.

Though the spate of 18th-century operas based on Tasso mostly covered different parts of the plot, especially the story of Armida, Clorinda was the first contralto role in French opera, in Tancrède, a tragédie en musique of 1702 by composer André Campra and librettist Antoine Danchet.