Rinaldo, a cantata for tenor solo, four-part male chorus and orchestra, was begun by Johannes Brahms in 1863 as an entry for a choral competition announced in Aachen. He chose as his text the dramatic poem of the same name by Goethe, which presents an episode from the epic Gierusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso in the form of a series of dialogues between the knight Rinaldo, who has been enchanted by the witch Armida, and his fellow-knights who are calling him back to the path of duty. The part of Armida is not sung as she makes only a silent appearance. Although the work was four-fifths completed in 1863, Brahms laid it aside and only finished it in 1868 after the success of his Ein deutsches Requiem. The premiere took place in Vienna on 28 February 1869 at a concert of the Akademischer Gesangverein. The composer conducted, with the tenor Gustav Walter, a student chorus numbering 300, and the Court Opera orchestra. Rinaldo was subsequently published as Brahms’s op.50. It has never been popular, but is interesting on a number of counts, not least because it may give the closest idea of what a Brahms opera would have sounded like. Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of Romantic music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Aachen Cathedral Printen Figurine at Aachen Cathedral Top Floor of Aachen Cathedral Tree-lined boulevard in Aachen Typical Aachen street with early 20th century Gründerzeit houses Aachen (French Aix-la-Chapelle, Dutch Aken, Latin Aquisgranum, Ripuarian Oche) is a spa city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the border... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Torquato Tasso (March 11, 1544 – April 25, 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered; 1575), in which he describes the imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Slovenian: Dunaj, Hungarian: Bécs, Czech: Vídeň, Slovak: Viedeň, Romany Vidnya; Croatian and Serbian: Beč) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...