A handsome prince falls in love with an abducted princess. Armed with musical instruments, he and his singing sidekick mount a rescue mission that tests their commitment to truth, love and humanity itself. Staging a mass revolt against the powers that be, British director Graham Vick has enlisted a good hundred locals and immigrants as demonstrators occupying makeshift camps on the flanks of Sferisterio's impressive open air stage. Sung in simple, modern Italian, Mozart's famous Singspiel takes on a liveliness and spunk that stresses the opera's folk roots and conveys the sense that the action is unfolding around us today.
In the aftermath of the Trojan war, a series of unrequited loves threatens to destabilise the fragile peace. But for a spurned Spartan princess, there are only two options left: forgiveness and murder. The most ambitious and innovative of all Rossini’s operas, Ermione was a calamitous failure on its opening night at the Teatro di San Carlo 200 years ago. It now returns to the Neapolitan theatre in a new production by Italian director Jacopo Spirei starring American soprano Angela Meade in the title role.
The production bears the imprint of the conductor, Marko Letonja, and the director, Tobias Richter, whose understanding is ideal: both breathe a troupe spirit - specific to comedy - into this heterogeneous cast, which brings together young and old. Both give as much importance to recitatives as to arias and ensembles.