Publisher's Synopsis
Ernelinde is Philidor's most important serious opera, and it marked an epoch at the Paris Opéra. It is a thoroughly human drama, dispensing entirely with the supernatural; it is in three acts, not five; and while it retains the spectacular elements and choruses normal in French opera, it is replete with lengthy arias in an Italianate style. It is, moreover, directly influenced by Gluck. Ernelinde was actually more successful with the public when revived in 1777, by which time Gluck's works were well established. However, its bold and compellingly dramatic ideas deserve our attention for its own sake. The libretto is by A. A. H. Poinsinet, after Noris.
