About the work
Le siège de Corinthe is a tragédie lyrique in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Luigi Balocchi and Alexandre Soumet, a thorough French reworking of his opera Maometto II, first staged in Naples in 1820. It was Rossini's first work for the Paris Opéra and premiered on 9 October 1826 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique.
Plot
The Ottoman sultan Mahomet II besieges the Greek city of Corinth in 1459. Its governor, Cléomène, wants his daughter Pamyra to marry the Greek officer Néoclès, but she secretly loves Mahomet. To protect Néoclès, she passes him off as her brother; as the city rises for a last stand, Pamyra answers her father's call and returns to the fighting Greeks, while Corinth falls in the battle.
Cultural significance
Arriving in 1826, in the midst of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829), the subject matched the philhellenic mood of Restoration Paris and was read as a gesture of solidarity with the Greek cause. The work marked the start of Rossini's turn toward French grand opera, continued with Le comte Ory and Guillaume Tell.