The Fondazione Rossini tells the story

Despite those who think that artists do not engage in politics, politics and history have always been present in melodrama: the heroes of the early days portrayed court society, Metastasio’s sovereigns educated the public and kings about the priority values of the 18th century, the warriors of early 19th-century opera continued the real battles on stage, while the bourgeoisie saw itself reflected in the plots of comic opera. But at a certain point, history, the history of peoples, burst onto the theatre stage: large frescoes in which the conflicts of the characters stood out without ever losing sight of the background. The performances of these operas stirred the spirits and were in unison with the great revolutions of the mid-19th century (1830-1831, 1848-1849) that shook the face of the continent. This is what would come to be called, in the Paris where it was born, grand opera: Meyerbeer, Auber, Donizetti, Verdi and Wagner wrote examples of it that are still in the repertoire today, from Les Huguenots to Don Carlos. When did grand opera begin? Perhaps with Auber’s La muette de Portici (1828), perhaps with Rossini’s Guillaume Tell the following year. But many see its origins in Le Siège de Corinthe, performed on 9 October 1826.

It was supposed to be a simple adaptation of Maometto secondo: Rossini, in presenting his first work in French, eagerly awaited by all, had decided to exploit an opera in which he believed strongly but which had not been performed since its unfortunate Neapolitan premiere in 1820. Thus, as shown in the critical edition of the Rossini Foundation conducted by Damien Colas Gallet, Rossini gave the French copyists the autograph of his Maometto secondo, initially prescribing a few simple adaptations: removal of the role en travesti, some simplification of the voices, a redistribution of roles for a new plot still set in Greece threatened by the Turks, but with the Greeks of Corinth in place of the Venetians of Negroponte. Meanwhile, the contemporary struggle of Greece for independence from the Ottoman Empire (Lord Byron had died two years earlier for that cause, celebrated in a cantata by Rossini), the French custom of a multimedia show that was as vast as possible, the wealth of choral and instrumental resources available, and the acclimatisation of the Pesaro native to the country where he had arrived the year before made Italian opera seria, as Rossini progressed in his composition, a new container of different emotions. Yes, of course, the private emotions of Anna (now Pamyra) and Maometto/Mahomet remained, as well as those of Calbo (now Néoclès, who had gone from mezzo-soprano to tenor); but above all, the public ones were expanded: hymns, dances (obligatory in French opera seria), contrasting choruses, and large-scale scenes never seen before, such as the blessing of the banners by the priest Hiéros before the ill-fated final battle, with the sensational march that closes it before the fire engulfs the city of Corinth. The exiles, Greeks and others, the press, and the audience of what Walter Benjamin would call the capital of the world decreed its triumph. A new era in European musical theatre was born.

Daniele Carnini

Published in : 21 February 2026