Ermione

"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.

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 For reasons that are as yet unclear, the opera was withdrawn on 19 April after only seven performances, and was not seen again until over a hundred years after Rossini's death.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 Rossini Opera Festival (sometimes known as 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).

Roles

ynopsis

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.

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