03 Feb 2008
ROSSINI: Ermione
Ermione: Azione tragica in two acts.
Andromaca: Dramma per musica in three acts.
Ippolito ed Aricia: Tragedia in five acts.
Idomeneo: Opera seria in three acts.
Paride ed Elena: Dramma per musica in five acts.
Orphée: Opera in four acts.
Music composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck (arranged by Hector Berlioz, 1859). Libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi
Alceste, ou Le triomphe d’Alcide: Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts.
Alceste: Tragédie opéra in three acts.
Medea: Melodramma tragico in three acts.
Oedipe à Colone: Tragédie lyrique in three acts.
Elektra: Tragedy in one act.
Fedra: Dramma per musica in two acts.
Les Troyens: Grand opéra in five acts.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Music drama in three acts.
Ariadne auf Naxos, Oper with a prologue and one act. Music composed by Richard Strauss. Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.
Der Schauspieldirektor [The Impresario], Singspiel in one act, K486.
Divertimento teatrale in one act.
Andrea Chénier, an opera in four acts.
La figlia del reggimento [La Fille du régiment (‘The Daughter of the Regiment’)], Opéra comique in two acts.
L’elisir d’amore, Melodramma giocoso in two acts.
La Bohème, opera in four acts. Music composed by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi lllica, based on episodes from Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de Bohème.
Ermione: Azione tragica in two acts.
Music composed by Gioachino Rossini. Libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola after Jean Racine’s Andromaque.
First Performance: 27 March 1819, Teatro San Carlo, Naples
| Principal Characters: | |
| Ermione [Hermione], daughter of Menelaus and Hélène, promised to Pyrrhus | Soprano |
| Andromaca [Andromaque], widow of Hector and captive of Pyrrhus | Contralto |
| Astianatte [Astyanax], son of Andromaque | Silent |
| Pirro [Pyrrhus], son of Achille, king of Épire (Ipiros) | Tenor |
| Oreste, son of Agamemnon | Tenor |
| Pilade [Pylade], friend of Oreste | Tenor |
| Fenicio [Phoenix], tutor to Achille and then to Pyrrhus | Bass |
| Cleone [Cléone], confidante of Hermione | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Cefisa [Céphise], confidante of Andromaque | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Attalo [Attalus], servant of Pyrrhus | Tenor |
Setting: Buthrot, city of Épire (Ipiros), in a room of Pirro’s palace.
Synopsis:
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.