Over the last twenty-five years something has been created in Frankfurt that is unique in Europe: a summer opera festival in the middle of a natural oasis. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Kammeroper Frankfurt in the Palmengarten, a forbidden opera by the great Gioachino Rossini will be presented in a new musical and scenic way as a Frankfurt premiere: "A wholly base, plebeian scurrility".
A newly ennobled peasant wants to marry off his daughter Ernestina, to the rich but intellectually modest young dandy Buralichio. But Ernestina, despite her simple origins, is a philosophizing female bookworm: she feels an "inner emptiness" within her, but, given the benefit of the doubt and the choice, loves the poor tutor Ermano rather than Buralichio. In order to deter her father's intended husband, the rumor is spread that Ernestina is not really a woman at all. She is a castrato who has only disguised herself as a woman to avoid military service. A fatal ruse: the duped would-be bridegroom Buralicchio has Ernestina arrested as a supposed castrato and draft dodger. But Ermano, disguised as a soldier, frees her again; the fugitive, in order not to be discovered, even sings a warlike song with soldiers. In the end, the true fronts, gender and cause are seemingly made clear and the happy ending is not long in coming.
Text source and more information about this event: https://www.palmengarten.de/#/de_DE/index/index
