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Opera Rara is delighted to announce that the label has been presented with Gramophone Magazine’s coveted "Opera of the Year Award" for Rossini’s Ermione. Ermione is without doubt one of the greatest operas by Rossini; but the work was greeted with incomprehension at its one performance in 1819 and was never revived in Rossini’s lifetime. The composer was resigned: ‘It is my little Guillaume Tell in Italian,’ he said, ‘and will not see the light of day until after my death.’ With its fabulous cast (including Carmen Giannattasio, Patricia Bardon, Paul Nilon, Colin Lee, Bülent Bezdüz, Graeme Broadbent and Rebecca Bottone) accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, the work is conducted by David Parry. Opera Rara, the brainchild of Patric Schmid and Don White, has been in the business of bringing back forgotten operatic repertoire of the 19th-century for over 40 years. Operas once threatened with extinction have now been brought vividly back to life through the Opera Rara recordings. In a world in which recording companies find it increasingly difficult to survive, let alone expand their activities, the achievement of Opera Rara is a remarkable success story. The secret of this success is that the company has always been a highly specialised venture founded on the conviction that there is an inexhaustible mine of fascinating, yet undeservedly forgotten, 19th-century Italian and French operatic music.