This ground-breaking "tragédie en musique" in a prologue and five acts, lasting approximately 2 and 1/2 hours, sets a libretto by Antoine Danchet which is based on Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata of 1581. This work was Campra's most successful lyric opera and was performed regularly from its premiere on November 7, 1702, at the Paris Opéra until 1764. It had a contemporary revival on July 1986 in Aix-en-Provence.

The plot incorporates a matrix of love affairs, overt and covert, interwoven with rivalries, all agitated by the on-going first crusade: Argant, leader of the Saracens, loves Clorinde, the Saracen princess and warrior, who has meanwhile become the prisoner of the crusader Tancrède, and they have fallen in love with each other; Herminie, the king of Antioch's daughter, also loves Tancrède, and Iseménor, a Saracen magician, loves Herminie. Meanwhile, Tancrède frees all the Saracen prisoners after publicly revealing his love for Clorinde. Iseménor, Argant, and Herminie hatch a scheme to lure Tancrède to an enchanted forest (conjured by Iseménor) in order to capture and kill him. The thrilling duet "Suivons la fureur" in Act I, scene 2, sung by Argant and Iseménor expresses this desire for vengeance, and contains some of the finest music in the opera. (Other notable moments are Tancrède's expressive aria "Sombres forêts" with string orchestra, and Herminie's lament "Cessez mes yeux"; most of the music is very moving and skillfully written). Also among the many effects in this work, Campra creates the sounds of the trees in the forest with flutes.

Tancrède is in fact taken captive but Herminie intervenes, declares her love for him, and prevents Iseménor from running him through with his sword. Nevertheless, Iseménor, angered, again attempts to kill Tancrède, but now Clorinde prevents his deed and frees Tancrède. But Clorinde is still a Saracen warrior and sacrifices a love affair to her duty. Later, at night, Tancrède engages in battle and thinks he has killed Argant, the Saracen leader; but in a shocking turn of events, Argant has only been wounded by the crusaders and it was Clorinde, dressed in Argant's armor, who was mortally stricken by Tancrède who is despairing and suicidal as the opera ends.

There are several unusual aspects to this work: besides the many evocations and special effects already mentioned, the three main male roles (Tancrède, Argant, and Iseménor) are all scored for low voices (which was found by one commentator to be "shocking and excessive"); the opera also created the first appearance of a contralto on the French lyric stage, although, as has been pointed out, the written vocal range is that for a mezzo-soprano, and it was the darker contralto timbral quality that was intended. The opera also contains many, perhaps way too many, dances, a total of 23, more than any similar lyric tragedy of the time and since. In any case, this is magnificent and engaging music with more than just historical importance.

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