Ermione’s Searing Drama Comes Late but is Worth the Wait
Rossini Opera Festival 2008
When ROF announced Ermione as its second new production for 2008, many Rossini fans couldn’t have been happier. This was only the second time ROF mounted the work since it flopped at its 1819 premiere at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. After the opera was withdrawn, the composer took a philosophical view of its failure. In the Escudier Brothers’ 1854 Rossini biography, the composer was quoted as saying, “Sooner or later you will see this (Ermione) again and then maybe the Neapolitan audience will acknowledge its mistake.” Still later, Rossini was asked if he would not like to have the work translated for the French stage, he replied, ” No…this is my little Italian William Tell, and it will only see the light of day again after I am dead.” It took until the 20th century for Rossini’s prophecy to be fulfilled.
The opera’s bad luck even seemed to infiltrate ROF’s 1987 production. The reader can learn all about the production’s troubles in Philip Gossett’s Divas and Scholars. The author relates a juicy behind-the-scenes story, one that opera lovers thrive on.
The reason for the Ermione‘s initial failure had nothing to do with its incisive libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola. As Giovanni Carli Ballola points out in his article in ROF’s 2008 program, Tottola derived the plot from Racine’s Andromaque (1667,) and his “libretto evolves faithful to the spirit and quite often to the letter of the original, with the sole difference that Ermione instead of killing herself over the body of Pirro, as Racine has us learn from the lips of Pilade, faints on stage while Oreste, haunted by the Furies, is carried off by his companions.” Perhaps the strongest clue to the opera’s failure is given by Rossini himself. In his 1819 letter to his mother on January 19th, he admits, “I am fairly well on with my Ermione I’m afraid the plot is too tragic, but I couldn’t care less now I can say that the job’s nearly done.” But it’s certainly not too tragic for 21st century opera audiences.
