ERMIONE

Tragic opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), to a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola based on Racine's tragedy Andromache. First performance: Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 27 March 1819.

Princess Ermione (soprano) is in love with King Pirro (tenor), who has pledged to make her his bride but has fallen in love with Andromaca (mezzo-soprano) and is breaking his pledge to Ermione. Prince Oreste (tenor) from Greece, whose love for Ermione is not returned, is being used by her as a go-between in order to exact revenge. Pirro is approaching the altar with Andromaca when he is killed by Oreste. But Ermione has had a change of heart about the order to kill Pirro, which she had given Oreste when she was in despair, and now she curses Oreste for what he has done. Oreste escapes as a result of the intervention of his soldiers.
The opera is important in Rossini's development. His aim here was to go beyond the use of "separate numbers " which he now re placed with large scale scenes of "music drama". The second act, for example, consists of only four numbers: Ermione's scena, "Di che vedesti piangere," magisterially guides the action in the direction Rossini wants, making it a kind of "expanded" aria into which he inserts recitatives and other dramatic material which do not interrupt the forward movement of the action. The extraordinary modernity of this structure was not understood by the audience in Naples, whose response led to Ermione being taken off after the first night.