1819–1821

Shortly after lauding to the skies the dramatically flawed Ricciardo e Zoraide, and just three weeks after acclaiming the revised Mosè in Egitto, the Naples audience gave short shrift to his newest work, Ermione, an opera Gioachino Rossini knew in his bones to be one of the finest he had yet written. Skillfully adapted from Jean Racine’s Andromaque by his more than competent librettist, Andrea Leone Tottola, Ermione ran for just five performances in late March and early April 1819, with two performances of act I added a fortnight later. Rossini immediately withdrew the score. He would later...

Shortly after lauding to the skies the dramatically flawed Ricciardo e Zoraide, and just three weeks after acclaiming the revised Mosè in Egitto, the Naples audience gave short shrift to his newest work, Ermione, an opera Gioachino Rossini knew in his bones to be one of the finest he had yet written. Skillfully adapted from Jean Racine’s Andromaque by his more than competent librettist, Andrea Leone Tottola, Ermione ran for just five performances in late March and early April 1819, with two performances of act I added a fortnight later. Rossini immediately withdrew the score. He would later make use of some of its music, but he became less and less inclined to try to revive the opera itself. It was the defensive action of a wounded man.