Most opera lovers by now are familiar with Armida and her crew: Handel, Gluck, and any number of other composers were mad over the story of the enchantress and her attempts to lure the hero Rinaldo away from his crusading duties and into her enchanted isle. The form is essentially opera seria, but Haydn was too great a composer to be restricted by its rigidity and therefore gives us scenes in many forms: arioso leading into aria, accompanied recitative leading to big confrontational arias, and more. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, occasionally perversely controversial, here leads a white-hot show (it was taped live in concert and, I presume, doctored a bit in the studio), with the dry recitative nicely trimmed. Cecilia Bartoli, in the title role, has eschewed her whispering here. She can still sing softly but it's less affected and her portrayal is a pip: cajoling and loving one minute and truly pissed off and scary the next.