Gioacchino Rossini opens his rarely performed opera Moses in Egypt with three colorful orchestral strokes, depicting the plague of darkness that has fallen over Egypt. The work depicts the Old Testament story of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, who are to be led to freedom by Moses, and interweaves it with the love story of the Egyptian Osiris and the Israelite Elcia. In order not to lose his beloved, Osiris repeatedly urges the fickle Pharaoh to deny the Israelite people their freedom. Moses then allows the forces of nature to take hold with divine help, bringing hail and fire from heaven to Egypt until he finally parts the Red Sea in order to reach the freedom he longs for. In order to circumvent the ban on secular operas during Lent, Rossini created this work in 1818, which is interspersed with oratorical and sacred elements and is unique in his oeuvre with its unusual sound dramaturgy and formal experiments.
Premiere February 15, 2025

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