Zelmira

The first performance of Zelmira was in Naples at the Teatro di San Carlo on 16 February 1822. This was followed by a successful premiere in Vienna on 13 April 1822, as part of a three-month-long Rossini Festival for which Rossini wrote some additional music. Performances in several Italian cities were followed by the London premiere on 24 January 1824, with Rossini conducting and Isabella Colbran (now his wife) in the title role. It was seen in Paris in 1826. There was one presentation in the US in New Orleans "around" 1835.[2]

Over 100 years were to pass before the opera was presented in Naples in 1965, but "to no great acclaim".[2] The work was given a production by the Rome Opera in 1989 and revived at the Pesaro Festival in 2009 with a cast including Juan Diego Flórez, Kate Aldrich and Gregory Kunde.[3]

Set for the mausoleum (lithograph by Pasquale Canna, 1771 - 1830)

The opera's complicated plot revolves around Zelmira, her father Polidoro, the wise and beloved king of the Isle of Lesbos, and her husband, Prince Ilo. Before the action begins, Ilo had departed the island to defend his homeland. While he was gone, Azor, the lord of Mytilene and a disappointed suitor of Zelmira, had invaded Lesbos with the intention of assassinating King Polidoro and taking over his throne. Zelmira, however, had managed to conceal her father in the royal mausoleum and then told Azor that he was hiding in the temple to Ceres. Azor burnt down the temple, thinking he had killed the King, but he was in turn killed on orders from Antenore, who also aspired to the throne.

Notes

Sources

• Gossett, Philip; Brauner, Patricia (2001), "Zelmira" in Holden, Amanda (ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4
• Greenwald, Helen and Hansell, Kathleen Kuzmick (2006), Zelmira: Dramma Per Musica in Two Acts by Andrea Leone Tottola. Critical edition prepared for the Fondazione Rossini, Vol. 33. Milan: Ricordi, 2006. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2006. ISBN 8889947004 ISBN 9788889947005
• Kalmus/Belwin Mills has reprinted a piano-vocal score of apparently French origin with a table of contents. No recitatives are given and whole scenes are omitted.
• Osborne, Charles (1994), The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, London: Methuen; Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0931340713
• Osborne, Richard (1990), Rossini, Ithaca, New York: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-088-5
• Osborne, Richard (1998), "Zelmira", in Stanley Sadie, (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Four, pp. 1223—1224. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5
• Scimone, Claudio, (Trans. John Underwood), Notes on Zelmira in booklet accompanying the 1989 Erato recording.
• Stendhal, (translated and annotated by Richard N. Coe), Life of Rossini, University of Washington Press, 1972 ISBN 978-0-670-42790-1 ISBN 0-295-95189-3

• Text of Zelmire by Pierre-Laurent de Belloy
• The New York Times on the 1989 revival of Zelmira at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.
• The Scotsman on the 2003 concert performance in Edinburgh.
• Chris Mullins, 'Recording review: Zelmira, Opera Rara', Opera Today, 22 December 2004.
• The University of Chicago Center for Italian Opera Studies has a definitive role list from the critical edition by Greenwald and Hansell and some musical analysis.