ERNANI Bregenz 2023 Saimir Pirgu, Franco Vassallo, Goran Jurić, Guanqun Yu

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Ernani  
• Composer: Verdi Giuseppe  
• Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Festspielhaus, Bregenz, Austria  
• Recorded: July 19, 2023
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Saimir Pirgu, Franco Vassallo, Goran Jurić, Guanqun Yu, Aytaj Shikhalizada, Omer Kobiljak, Stanislav Vorobyov
• Conductor: Enrique Mazzola  
• Orchestra: Wiener Symphoniker  
• Chorus: Prager Philharmonischer Chor  
• Chorus Master: Lukáš Vasilek  
• Choreographer: Ran Arthur Braun  
• Stage Director: Lotte de Beer  
• Stage Designer: Christof Hetzer  
• Costume Designer: Christof Hetzer  
• Lighting Designer: Alex Brok  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: ORF, Unitel  
• Date Published: 2023  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, desubs  
• Video Recording from: ORF IIII     FULL VIDEO
•  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the 1830 play Hernani by Victor Hugo.

Verdi was commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice in Venice to write an opera, but finding the right subject took some time, and the composer worked with the inexperienced Piave in shaping first one and then another drama by Hugo into an acceptable libretto. As musicologist Roger Parker notes, the composer “intervened on several important points, insisting for example that the role of Ernani be sung by a tenor (rather than by a contralto as had originally been planned)”.

Ernani was first performed on 9 March 1844, and it was “immensely popular, and was revived countless times during its early years”.

It became Verdi’s most popular opera until it was superseded by Il trovatore after 1853. In 1904, it became the first opera to be recorded completely.

Synopsis
Time: 1519.
Place: Aragon, Aachen, and Zaragoza.
Act 1
Mountains of Aragon
The bandits demand the reason for Ernani’s gloom (Chorus: Evviva! Beviam! Beviam! / “To you we drink”; Ernani pensoso! / “Ernani, so gloomy? Why, oh strong one, does care sit on your brow?”). Ernani replies that he loves Elvira (Recitative: “Thanks, dear friends”; Cavatina: Come rugiada al cespite / “As the flower turns to the sun”), who is about to be married against her will to old Gomez de Silva (O tu che l’alma adora). He asks the bandits to abduct her.

In Elvira’s chamber
Elvira worries about her upcoming marriage (Scena: “Now sinks the sun and Silva does not return”; Cavatina: Ernani, Ernani involami / “Ernani, Ernani, save me”) as servants deliver Silva’s wedding presents to her. She reaffirms her love for Ernani (Tutto sprezzo che d’Ernani / “I scorn everything which does not speak to my heart of Ernani”). King Carlo, disguised as a peasant, enters, but Elvira recognizes him and rejects the love that he offers her. As he attempts to use force, she grasps a dagger, but Ernani suddenly arrives and stops Carlo (Trio: “A friend comes quickly to your aid”). Carlo recognizes Ernani as the leader of the bandits. Ernani replies that Carlo robbed him of his lands and forced him into a life of banditry. As he invites Carlo to fight, Silva appears and sees Ernani (Infelice!… e tu credevi… che mai vegg’io! / “Dreadful sight”; Silva’s cavatina: “Unhappy man! You thought this lovely…was yours”).
Ernani offers to fight them both when Riccardo approaches and recognises the king. Silva is horrified and apologizes to the king, while Ernani whispers to Elvira to prepare to flee.

Act 2
A hall in Silva’s palace
Ernani enters disguised as a pilgrim. He asks for shelter, which Silva grants him, and then learns from Silva that he is about to marry Elvira, who believes Ernani to be dead. Ernani reveals his true identity to Elvira and she tells him that she plans to kill herself at the altar (Duet: Ah, morir potessi adesso / “Ah, if I could die now”). Silva walks in at that moment, discovers the pair, but agrees to keep his word to Ernani and protect him from the king, for which Ernani will owe him a perpetual debt. (Trio: No, vendetta più tremenda / “No, I want to keep a greater revenge”). Carlo arrives and wishes to know why the castle is barred. Silva refuses to surrender Ernani (Carlo’s aria: Lo vedremo, veglio audace / “We shall see, you bold old man”) and Don Carlo’s men cannot find Ernani’s hiding place. Silva keeps his word, even when the king secures Elvira as a hostage. Silva releases Ernani, and then challenges him to a duel. Ernani refuses to fight, but unites with Silva in his plans to free Elvira from the king. Ernani swears to appear at the summons of Silva, wherever he may be at that time (Odi il voto o grande Iddio / “Oh God, hear the vow”),

[Added for Parma, 26 December 1844: “at Rossini’s request, Verdi wrote a grand aria for the tenor Nicola Ivanoff [it]”.[18] Ernani gathers his men to him. His aria of vengeance: Sprezzo la vita né più m’alletta / “Life means nothing to me, only hope of vengeance” concludes the act].

Act 3
Act III: “O sommo Carlo”
Shrine of Charles at Aachen.
In the burial vault of Charles the Great at Aachen

Carlo visits the grave of the emperor Charlemagne (Carlo Magno), whose successor, the new Holy Roman Emperor, is being elected by delegates from the relevant countries. Carlo resolves to change his life if he is crowned (Cavatina: Oh, de’ verd’anni miei/ “Oh, the dreams and deceits of my youth”). Hiding behind the vault, he overhears a gathering of conspirators including Silva and Ernani. Ernani swears to murder Carlo. The conspiracy is foiled when Carlo’s attendants enter and surprise the conspirators. The king commands that all the traitorous noblemen be executed. Ernani steps forward, declaring that thus he must die too; he is not the bandit Ernani, but Don Juan of Aragon, whose lands were taken from him. Elvira, who had been brought to Carlo as his intended empress, begs mercy for her lover, and Carlo, whose mood has changed, forgives them both and places Elvira’s hand in that of Ernani.

Act 4
Ernani’s Castle

Elvira and Ernani have just been married, when, in consternation, Ernani hears a bugle call. Silva arrives and silently hands Ernani a dagger. Ernani asks for time to “sip from the cup of love” (Ascolta, ascolta un detto ancor/ “Listen, just one word…”) but, cursed by Silva as a coward, Ernani keeps his oath and stabs himself in the heart (Trio with Silva: È vano, o donna, il piangere, è vano / “Your weeping is in vain, woman”). He dies in Elvira’s arms, telling her to live.

Quoted from Wikipedia