Ermione

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Operas by Gioachino Rossini

La cambiale di matrimonio (1810)
L'equivoco stravagante (1811)
L'inganno felice (1812)
Ciro in Babilonia (1812)
La scala di seta (1812)
Demetrio e Polibio (1812)
La pietra del paragone (1812)
L'occasione fa il ladro (1812)
Il signor Bruschino (1813)
Tancredi (1813)
L'italiana in Algeri (1813)
Aureliano in Palmira (1813)
Il turco in Italia (1814)
Sigismondo (1814)
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (1815)
Torvaldo e Dorliska (1815)
The Barber of Seville (1816)
La gazzetta (1816)
Otello (1816)
La Cenerentola ( 1817)
La gazza ladra (1817)
Armida (1817)
Adelaide di Borgogna (1817)
Mosè in Egitto (1818)
Ricciardo e Zoraide (1818)
Adina (1818)
Ermione (1819)
Eduardo e Cristina (1819)
La donna del lago (1819)
Bianca e Falliero (1819)
Maometto II (1820)
Matilde di Shabran (1821)
Zelmira (1822)
Semiramide (1823)
Il viaggio a Reims (1825)
Le siège de Corinthe (1826)
Ivanhoé (1826)
Moïse et Pharaon ( 1827)
Le comte Ory (1828)
Guillaume Tell ( 1829)

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Ermione is a tragic opera (azione tragica) in two acts by Gioacchino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, based on the play Andromaque by Jean Racine.

Contents

[edit] Performance history

Ermione was first performed at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, on 27 March 1819. For reasons that are as yet unclear, the opera was withdrawn on 19 April after only seven performances, and was not seen again until over a hundred years after Rossini's death. The autograph score, however, was preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and eventually a concert performance was given in Siena in August 1977.

The first modern staging was at the Pesaro Festival on 22 August 1987, with Montserrat Caballé, Marilyn Horne, Chris Merritt and Rockwell Blake. In Britain, a concert performance took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 10 April, 1992, and the first staging was at Glyndebourne on 22 May 1995. In the USA, a concert performance was given at the San Francisco Opera on 26 June 1992, and the opera was first staged by Opera Omaha on 11 September 1992.

Other stagings of Ermione in recent years have taken place in Naples, Madrid, Rome (1991) and Santa Fe (2000).

[edit] Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast, March 27, 1819
(Conductor: Nicola Festa)
Ermione (Hermione), daughter of Helen and Menelaus soprano Isabella Colbran
Andromaca (Andromache), widow of Hector contralto Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni
Pirro, (Pyrrhus) son of Achilles and king of Epirus tenor Andrea Nozzari
Oreste (Orestes), son of Agammemnon tenor Giovanni David
Pilade (Pylades), Oreste's companion tenor Giuseppe Ciccimarra
Cleone, Ermione's confidante mezzo-soprano Maria Manzi
Fenicio, Pirro's tutor bass Michele Benedetti
Cefisa, Andromaca's confidante contralto Raffaella De Bernardis
Attalo, Pirro's confidant tenor Gaetano Chizzola
Astianatte (Astyanax), Andromaca's son silent
Lords of Epirus, Trojan prisoners, Oreste's attendants, Spartan maidens

[edit] Synopsis

Phèdre et Hippolyte by Baron Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1802)
Phèdre et Hippolyte by Baron Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1802)

Setting: Buthrot, city of Épire (Ipiros), in a room of Pirro’s palace.

After having defeated the Trojans, Pirro returns to his country with numerous prisoners among which there is Andromaca and her child, Astianatte. Pirro breaks his promise to Ermione because of his love for Andromaca. Remaining faithful to the memory of Hector, Andromaca rejects his advances. Oreste, who has been sent to Buthrote by the Greek kings to demand that Pirro fulfill his duty, declares his love to Ermione. Yet Ermione, tormented by jealousy, seeks to regain the heart of Pirro. Ermione rejects Oreste and his demand for the death of Astianatte (so as to avoid inevitable revenge). But, Pirro, in the presence of the court and Ermione, asks Andromaca to marry him. Andromaca falsely consents to the wedding, but in reality she wants only to save her child. Humiliated, Ermione induces Oreste to kill Pirro. When Oreste shows her the bloody dagger, Ermione is horrified and calls the Furies upon him. Oreste, stunned and delirious, is dragged away by his companions to a ship.

[edit] References

  • Scott L. Balthazar: Review of Ermione: Azione tragica in due atti di Andrea Leone Tottola; prima rappresentazione Napoli, Teatro San Carlo, 27 Marzo 1819 by Gioachino Rossini, Patricia B. Brauner, Philip Gossett in Notes, 2nd Ser., Vol. 54, No. 3 (Mar., 1998), pp. 764-767
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