Warner Music Opera Rara - Ermione, 2CD CD Classic

Gramophone Award winner 2011 - 'This recording 'runs at white heat whenever Colin Lee's Orestes is on stage' - Carmen Giannattasio in the title-role is 'the mistress of every phrase'. The mastery of bel canto specialist David Parry adds the finishing touches to an exemplary recording on this specialist label for unusual operatic repertoire.''The standoffs between Carmen Giannattasio's Ermione, Paul Nilon's Pirro and Patricia Bardon's Andromaca bristle with theatrical temperament'Hugh Canning, Sunday TimesDuring the years from 1815 to 1822 when his career centred on Naples, Rossini composed a sequence of works for the Teatro San Carlo, which at that time boasted an outstanding orchestra and a company of resident singers that was the leading ensemble available anywhere. A string of masterpieces resulted, including such works as Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra, Otello, Ricciardo e Zoraide and La donna del lago (all featuring in Opera Rara’s catalogue). Ermione is without doubt one of the greatest operas by Rossini, despite it being perhaps the least immediately successful: Ermione was received with incomprehension at its sole performance in 1819 and was never revived in Rossini’s lifetime. The composer was resigned: ‘It is my little Guillaume Tell in Italian,’ he said, ‘and will not see the light of day until after my death.’ Since its first stage revival in Pesaro in 1987, Ermione has been recognised as a lost masterpiece. Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the opera’s novelties begin with an overture interrupted by a choral lament of Trojan prisoners. Tension and staggering originality are maintained right to the very end.