Verdi's Operas: Ernani

This year, I am listening to the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. I’ve heard some of his operas and have seen Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra. But I’ve been curious about his several others. So, I decided to purchase the 2013 75-CD set of Verdi’s operas (and additional music), which I’ll listen to during the upcoming year. For reference I’ll study Charles Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi (New York: Knopf, 1979).

Ernani premiered at Teatro La Feinice in Venice on March 9, 1844. The story is based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. After the success of Verdi’s previous two operas, he received several possibilities for a commission. When he settled on the Venice, he stipulated terms for payment and performance, including the provision that the libretto should be first finished to his satisfaction. He noted that composition of the music flowed naturally for him from a suitable libretto. It was for many years Verdi’s most performed opera. In fact, the first recording of a complete opera was Ernani, on 40 single-sided discs in 1904. 

The story concerns the bandit Ernani, who is in love with Elvira, about to be married to Gomez de Silva. Ernani want his fellow bandits to kidnap her. She thwarts that, but the love between her and Ernani is still complicated! 

This recording is conducted by Richard Bonynge for the Orchestra and Chorus of Welsh National Opera. Joan Suterhland is Elvira, and Luciano Pavarotti is Ernani. 

Osborne writes, “The weak pages in Ernani are comparatively few. What is most impressive is the opera’s wealth of beautiful and gloriously singable tunes… perhaps it is worth pointing out the obvious: that Silva’s horn theme is Verdi’s earliest use of a primitive form of the Leitmotif, which he has often been accused of appropriating from Wagner. He had heard no Wagner in 1844… There is really no Wagner influence anywhere in Verdi… It is much more likely that Der fliegende Hollander contains music written under the influence of Verdi and Donizetti.”