Rossini - Ermione
Giannattasio; Bardon; Lee; Geoffrey Mitchell Choir; London Philharmonic Orchestra / Parry
Opera Rara ORC42

Release date September 2010

Rossini's Ermione is an extraordinary work with an extraordinary history - or more accurately non-history. Written for Naples in 1819, it failed spectacularly and was not staged again until its revival at the Pesaro Festival in 1987. Yet it is surely one of Rossini's finest achievements, its originality revealed at the outset by a chorus of Trojan captives woven into the overture to ease us seamlessly into the drama. The story, set in the aftermath of the fall of Troy, is centred on the emotional conflict between Hector's widow Andromache and Hermione, the daughter of Helen and Menelaus. In this version, derived from Racine's Andromaque, Andromache's son Astyanax survives to become a pawn in the hands of the Greek heroes Pirro (Achilles' son Pyrrhus) and Oreste (Agamemnon's son Orestes). Andromaca, sung here with dark-toned vibrancy by Patricia Bardon, is characterised by a desperate resolve to save her son from assassination at the hands of the Greeks. She repels Pirro's malevolent infatuation but arouses the intense jealousy of Hermione, from whose reactions the tragedy springs. Carmen Giannattasio's Ermione heats up searingly in the magnificent second act with a sequence of arias that propel the action relentlessly to its tragic climax. The three heroes are all tenors: Pirro is sung by Paul Nilon, Oreste's companion Pilade (Pylades) by Bulent Bezduz (a memorable Edgardo in Scottish Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor in 2007), and best of all Oreste himself by Colin Lee. Their performance powerfully conveys the tension between embittered despair and ferocious paranoia which is the essence of the opera, and the London Philharmonic provides strong support in the warm acoustic of the Henry Wood Hall. "It is my little Guillaume Tell," remarked Rossini after its failure, "and will not see the light of day until after my death." This beautifully presented recording provides a triumphant fulfilment.

Reviewed by Robert Allen