Ernani

I recant.
I must apologize for my unfairly low evaluation of Ernani. I watched and listened again. Indeed, it was much better by a long shot than it came across to me the first time. I must have been tired or inattentive or angry. Certainly, I want to encourage the Tutto Verdi series. While I'm not wild about this performance, it is very competent and at times rousing. Please, as I did, listen again and reconsider if an initial negative response is questionable for any reason.

Disappointingly Uneven
I like Ernani. As William Berger notes in "Verdi With A Vengeance", it is "...graced with more melody in a few hours than most composers managed in a lifetime". Thus it was that I put this disc in the player, with great anticipation, based on the preceeding C Major Tutto Verdi releases.

Alas ...

Three of the four principal singers were average at best. When I heard Marco Berti begin Ernani's first scene aria, all I could think of was the title to a late 1980's show, "Lend Me A Tenor". It sounded like he had not warmed up, but even later in the opera, he sounded clumsy and unfocused. Susan Neves, who supposedly has Elvira as one of her major roles, doesn't. Her bottom notes were right off the glottus and her upper notes had a forced quality. Bass Giacomo Prestia as Silva had a noticeable wobble. No one tried to act.

Saving the day, so to speak, was Carlo Guelfi as Don Carlo. Although he, too, sounded like he had not warmed up when he made his entrance,...

An Exhilerating Performance of Verdi's First Verdian Opera
Ernani is the fifth of Verdi's canon (1844) and in many ways the beginning of the real Verdian operatic dramas. Ernani is focused on a clear set of issues and as pronounced by Budden (The Operas of Verdi) in this opera Verdi defines the male voice arch types he will use for the rest of his career. The granite like monochromatic bass (Silva) to whom honor and family pride are excessively important, the heroic tenor whose lyrical, ardent, suffering lover and his railing against authority makes him the romantic hero as Victor Hugo had invented him. The third voice type will be the most potent force in Italian opera to come; The Verdi baritone. In the character Carlo, the King of Spain and soon to be Emperor Carlo V he is a mix of conflicting noble and impulsive desires. He looms largest over the events and lives of the others. His is the throne and the power. It is a powerful and exciting story.
At it's premiere this opera was an overwhelming success. It really made Verdi famous and...

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