Why you should not miss Zelmira

There are operas whose plot can be told in two words (Iago convinces Othello that his wife is unfaithful, and Othello kills her), and others for which a whole evening in front of the fire would not be enough. But we know that success or failure has nothing to do with the plot. Proof of this is Zelmira, the last opera Rossini wrote for Naples and the pearl of his triumphant tour of Vienna (1822), with which he overwhelmed all the German-speaking musicians present and past (including, to name but a few, Weber, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert) and made a certain Hegel gasp with enthusiasm…

The events told in Zelmira are so obscure that a long prelude is necessary. It is a bit like Il Trovatore; but like Il Trovatore, the obscurity of the plot does not detract from the greatness of the opera. At the centre of the story is the eponymous heroine, wrongly accused of being a murderess (of her father Polidoro, King of Lesbos, of the usurper Azor and possibly of her husband Ilo), who spends her time trying to exonerate herself by trying not to endanger the lives of those she loves (and from whom, it must be said, she receives no significant support). An admirable woman, Zelmira, but also extremely naive. Yes, because the characters all seem to be in the grip of a permanent blindness; to tell the truth, it is above all the men who hold or aspire to power who make a very bad impression. And it can be said that it is precisely this blindness, this darkness in which the characters move, that makes Zelmira possible. Zelmira‘s situations are perfect occasions for making music: from the first chorus mourning Azor’s death, to the finale of the first act, in which Zelmira is caught with a dagger in her hand, giving rise to a magnificent concertato of amazement, to the protagonist’s rondo, and in between some of the most pyrotechnical arias ever conceived. From the inexhaustible trunk comes music that overwhelms everything: the characters, the action and even the audience. We cry and rejoice in a single situation, permeated by music whose effect is calculated to the millimetre. What does it matter why one thing or another happens when the result is so great?

With Zelmira, Rossini struck the decisive blow that made him the most important musician in Europe. He had written it for the extraordinary cast he had at his disposal in Naples (two first-rate tenors, the prima donna par excellence, Isabella Colbran, soon to become Signora Rossini, and comprimari who would have played the leading roles in any theatre but the San Carlo); and, exceptionally, the same cast followed him to Vienna. The echo of Zelmira was immense: at last – or unfortunately, according to some – Italian music was rising to the heights of complexity of German music, without losing its horizon of unforgettable melodies.

The critical edition of Zelmira, edited for the Fondazione Rossini by Helen M. Greenwald and Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell, is equal to the monumental scale and difficulty of the music. It is (wrongly) thought that the critical edition consists of restoring what is in the autograph; instead it is a long and complex journey into the mind of a composer, a poet, an entire society. In this case, the autograph has survived, having remained under Rossini’s control for a long time and having been written with great care. But this precious manuscript is not enough, because there is not a single Zelmira. In fact, Rossini took this opera to Vienna, London and Paris, each time modifying or accepting changes for new audiences and new performers. In order to reconstruct all the versions over which Rossini presided, the critical edition has therefore examined a remarkable number of additional sources, including the autograph of the chorus and Emma’s aria, once in the possession of Richard Bonynge and Joan Sutherland, now part of the Rossini Foundation collection and kept in the Tempietto rossiniano. The editorial work has thus made it possible, on the one hand, to reconstruct an entirely stable “text” and, on the other, to show and make available to performers a different face of Zelmira each time, thanks to the supreme adaptability and effectiveness of Italian opera.

Not surprisingly, it is rare to see an opera like Zelmira on stage these days, and it is a challenge at every turn for the director, the set designer, the musicians and, above all, the singers. But the reward is enormous. Those who come to Pesaro will have an unforgettable experience: never before has Rossini been so thoroughly Rossini.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Daniele Carnini

Published in : 30 April 2025