Ermione is a tragic

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 (azione tragica) in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Andrea Leone Tottola

Andrea Leone Tottola

Andrea Leone Tottola was a prolific Italian librettist, best known for his work with Gaetano Donizetti and Gioachino Rossini.It is not known when or where he was born...

, based on the play Andromaque

Andromaque

Andromaque is a tragedy in five acts by the French playwright Jean Racine written in alexandrine verse. It was first performed on 17 November 1667 before the court of Louis XIV in the Louvre in the private chambers of the Queen, Marie Thérèse, by the royal company of actors, called "les Grands...

by Jean Racine

Jean Racine

Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...

.

Performance history

Ermione was first performed at the Teatro di San Carlo

Teatro di San Carlo

The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...

, Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of 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

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

, and eventually a concert performance was given in Siena

Siena

Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...

 in August 1977.

The first modern staging was at the Rossini Opera Festival

Rossini Opera Festival

The Rossini Opera Festival is an opera festival held in August of each year in Pesaro, Italy, the birthplace of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini....

 (sometimes known as the Pesaro Festival) on 22 August 1987, with Montserrat Caballé

Montserrat Caballé

Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....

, Marilyn Horne

Marilyn Horne

Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....

, Chris Merritt

Chris Merritt

Chris Merritt is an opera singer. He studied piano, singing, dance and drama at Oklahoma City University where he made his first stage appearance in Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in a university production. At age 21, he was accepted into the summer season Apprentice Program for...

 and Rockwell Blake

Rockwell Blake

Rockwell Blake is an American operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas. He was the first winner of the Richard Tucker Award.-Biography:...

. In Britain, a concert performance took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

Queen Elizabeth Hall

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...

 on 10 April 1992, and the first staging was at Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...

 on 22 May 1995. In the USA, a concert performance was given at the San Francisco Opera

San Francisco Opera

San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...

 on 26 June 1992, and the opera was first staged by Opera Omaha

Opera Omaha

Opera Omaha is an opera company in Omaha, Nebraska. It is well known for premiering Wakonda's Dream, a contemporary opera about Native Americans set in the Niobrara....

 on 11 September 1992.
Other stagings of Ermione in recent years have taken place in Naples, Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 (1991), Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 (1992) and Santa Fe

Santa Fe Opera

The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...

 (2000). The New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

 and Dallas Opera

Dallas Opera

The Dallas Opera is an opera company located in Dallas, Texas . The company was founded in 1957 as the Dallas Civic Opera by Laurence Kelly and Nicolà Rescigno, both of whom had been active with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first as administrator, the second as artistic director.-The company's...

 joined together to mount a production in 2004.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, March 27, 1819 (Conductor: Nicola Festa)
Ermione (Hermione Hermione (mythology) In Greek mythology, Hermione was the only daughter of Menelaus and Helen; however, some sources state that her mother also had a daughter, Iphigenia, by Theseus, as well as three younger sons, one by Menelaus, the others by Paris, prince of Troy.Hermione was nine when her mother left with Paris... ), daughter of Helen and Menelaus	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Isabella Colbran Isabella Colbran Isabella Colbran was a Spanish opera singer, who was known in her native country as Isabel Colbrandt. Many sources note her as a dramatic coloratura soprano but, some believe that she was a mezzo-soprano with a high extension, a soprano sfogato...
Andromaca (Andromache Andromache In Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector and daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled... ), widow of Hector	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...	Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni was an Italian soprano who later became a contralto.Active on the operatic stage from 1811 to 1831, she suffered of smallpox in the early years of her career which caused a change in her extended vocal range.Appearing in Bergamo, Padua, Bologna, Venice, Milan, Rome and...
Pirro, (Pyrrhus Neoptolemus Neoptolemus was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia in Greek mythology. Achilles' mother foretold many years before Achilles' birth that there would be a great war. She saw that her only son was to die if he fought in the war... ) son of Achilles and king of Epirus	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Andrea Nozzari Andrea Nozzari Andrea Nozzari was an Italian tenor.Nozzari was born in Vertova and studied in Bergamo and Rome. He is notable for the principal roles written for him by Gioachino Rossini and mostly premiered in Domenico Barbaia's theatres in Naples...
Oreste (Orestes Orestes (mythology) In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones.... ), son of Agammemnon	tenor	Giovanni David Giovanni David Giovanni David was an Italian tenor particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas....
Pilade (Pylades Pylades In Greek mythology, Pylades is the son of King Strophius of Phocis and of Anaxibia, daughter of Atreus and sister of Agamemnon and Menelaus. He is mostly known for his strong friendship with his cousin Orestes, son of Agamemnon.-Orestes and Pylades:... ), Oreste's companion	tenor	Giuseppe Ciccimarra Giuseppe Ciccimarra Giuseppe Ciccimarra was an Italian tenor, closely associated with Rossini roles.-Career:Ciccimarra was born in Altamura...
Cleone, Ermione's confidante	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Maria Manzi
Fenicio, Pirro's tutor	bass	Michele Benedetti Michele Benedetti Michele Benedetti was an Italian bass particularly associated with Rossini roles.-Career:...
Cefisa, Andromaca's confidante	contralto	Raffaella De Bernardis
Attalo, Pirro's confidant	tenor	Gaetano Chizzola
Astianatte (Astyanax Astyanax In Greek mythology, Astyanax was the son of Hector, Crown Prince of Troy and Princess Andromache of Cilician Thebe. His birth name was Scamandrius , but the people of Troy nicknamed him Astyanax In Greek mythology, Astyanax was the son of Hector, Crown Prince of Troy and Princess Andromache of... ), Andromaca's son	silent
Lords of Epirus, Trojan prisoners, Oreste's attendants, Spartan maidens

Recordings

Year	Cast: Ermione, Andromaca, Pirro, Oreste	Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra	Label:
1986	Cecilia Gasdia Cecilia Gasdia -Biography:Cecilia Gasdia studied music and piano at the Conservatorio di Verona, graduating in 1980. That same year she won the first prize in the "New Voices for Opera" competition dedicated to Maria Callas... , Margarita Zimmermann, Ernesto Palacio Ernesto Palacio Ernesto Palacio is a Peruvian tenor, particularly associated with Rossini and Mozart roles.Palacio first studied theology before turning to music... , Chris Merritt Chris Merritt Chris Merritt is an opera singer. He studied piano, singing, dance and drama at Oklahoma City University where he made his first stage appearance in Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in a university production. At age 21, he was accepted into the summer season Apprentice Program for...	Claudio Scimone Claudio Scimone Claudio Scimone is an Italian conductor.He was born in Padua, Italy and studied conducting with Dmitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara. He has established an international reputation as a conductor, as well as a composer. He has revived many baroque and renaissance works... , Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Chorus	Audio CD: Erato Cat: 2292-45790
1995	Anna Caterina Antonacci Anna Caterina Antonacci Anna Caterina Antonacci is an Italian soprano, known for her roles in the bel canto and Baroque repertoire.Born in Ferrara, Antonacci studied in Bologna, and made her debut as Rosina in 1986 at Arezzo. She spans the soprano and mezzo-soprano repertoire... , Diana Montague Diana Montague Diana Montague is a British mezzo-soprano known for her performances in opera and as a concert singer.-Biography:She was born in Winchester and educated at the Testwood School, the Winchester School of Art and the Royal Northern College of Music... , Jorge López Yáñez, Bruce Ford	Andrew Davis Andrew Davis Andrew Davis is the name of:* Andrew Jackson Davis , American spiritualist* Andy Davis , Washington Redskins player* Andrew Davis , American film director* Andrew M... , London Philharmonic Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...  and the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus	DVD: Warner Music Vision Cat: 0630 14012-2; Kultur Cat: D 2850
2008	Sonia Ganassi Sonia Ganassi Sonia Ganassi is an Italian mezzo-soprano. She made her debut as Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. She has performed in many of the world’s famous opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the Royal Opera House in London and the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. She is best... , Marianna Pizzolato, Gregory Kunde Gregory Kunde Gregory Kunde is an American operatic tenor particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories.... , Antonino Siragusa	Roberto Abbado Roberto Abbado Roberto Abbado is an Italian conductor. He is the son of musician Marcello Abbado and the nephew of conductor Claudio Abbado... , Teatro Comunale di Bologna Teatro Comunale di Bologna The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy, and is one of the most important opera venues in Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season....  Orchestra and Prague Chamber Choir (Recording of a performance in the Adriatic Arena ADRIATIC Arena ADRIATIC Arena, formerly known as BPA Palace, is an indoor sporting arena located in Pesaro, Italy. The seat capacity of the arena it's 10.323 seats... , Pesaro Pesaro Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206.... , August)	Audio CD: Celestial Audio Cat: CA 808