#eustazio

♞ rinaldo ( black knight ) - i mean, he’s a knight. oh, yeah, and the leaping movement of the knight piece is reflected in some scenes, i suppose. in particular, i’m thinking of “venti, turbini” and the scene where he disappears, only to reappear as armida’s captive ( does this make sense? )

♚ almirena ( black king ) - utterly powerless, but also a central figure in the game. her capture by armida ends the first act ( and is the indirect catalyst for things to go south in the later acts ).

♛ goffredo ( black queen ) - i’ve explained this before, i’ll explain it again- he doesn’t do much in the beginning ( like how a queen normally comes into play later, due to being blocked ), but he is powerful. he’s in charge.

♝ eustazio ( black bishop ) - begins right by his queen’s ( goffredo’s ) side. also worth the same amount of points as the knight ( rinaldo ), and i feel like that adds a nice balance to things.

♕ armida ( white queen ) - similar to goffredo. she’s in charge. but by the point where we enter the story, her “pawns” are all over the place and thus she has the space to move. also one of the reasons i made her WHITE queen specifically was for the sake of visuals- the white queen’s starting square ( armida’s “home base” ) is a black square, and i really liked the image of armida contrasted against all these shadowy backdrops.

♔ argante ( white king ) - he’s a literal king, though here his role is also meant to reflect his subservience to armida. we love him for that.

“col valor” ( + recitative ) from 2011 glyndebourne festival rinaldo, with tim mead as eustazio.