Victor Hugo is one of the great jewels of French literature. It’s sad that, in America at least, he’s mostly thought of as the provider of plot lines for the musical Les Miserables and for Verdi operas. Verdi’s 1844 Ernani was the first of Verdi’s many operas to use a Hugo plot line, in this case adapting Hugo’s great 1830 success, Hernani. Hugo hated what Verdi had done to his play.
That’s ironic since Hugo’s play with its florid, high-falutin’ language is probably unproduceable now while Verdi’s opera successfully translates Hugo’s language into song and is eminently produceable within the conventions of grand opera. It’s one of the best of Verdi’s early period operas.
This is the first time in a quarter century that Lyric Opera audiences have had the opportunity of hearing this important Verdi work. I’m ashamed to say that I have no recollection of having seen Lyric’s production of Ernani in 1984 and it’s possible that I missed it for some reason. I’m pretty sure I would have remembered seeing Grace Bumbry.
I did attend Lyric’s new production of Ernani last night and found it an entertaining evening at the opera albeit a not particularly thrilling one. The sets and costumes are “natural”, i.e. evocative of of the period in which the action takes place, in this case 16th century Spain. The plot involves events surrounding the election of King Charles I of Spain as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
Many of the sets like the one pictured above incorporate Moorish elements. I would love to know how the panels pictured above were made. I suspect that the ornate panels are foam poured into molds and painted to look like wood but I couldn’t really tell from my seat.
The performance was conducted by Italian conductor Renato Palumbo. Maestro Palumbo did a masterful job of restraining the sometimes overwhelming Lyric Opera orchestra and maintained a fine balance between voices and instruments. However, I got the impression that he was rushing the tempi somewhat, throwing the singers somewhat off balance. It’s possible that I am mistaken. The singers were definitely taking breaths in odd places and occasionally running out of steam at the ends of phrases. I thought the tenor was shouting from time to time while the soprano muffed her high notes, and the bass growled his low notes rather than singing them.
The part of Don Carlo probably contains Verdi’s best work for baritone voice of any opera in his early period and baritone Boaz Daniel lived up to the challenge. I found his voice powerful and fluent, particularly in the arias he has in the first three acts of the work. I thought his acting was a trifle wooden but one can’t have everything.
It’s my understanding that many of the principals were slogging through despite illness or injury. Good on them. I thought they gave workmanlike performances.
Handicapping the season so far: Tosca, Ernani.
The Critics
If the vocal star-power on display did not suggest that a new golden age of Verdi singing is upon us, the level was fully on par with today’s international standard, and sometimes better than that.
As Don Carlo, Israeli baritone Boaz Daniel summoned sufficient vocal solidity and variety of color to convey the king’s shifting emotions and, by the end, the new emperor’s regal authority.
Chicago native Radvanovsky cut a statuesque figure, throwing herself into the music and drama with unstinting energy. Her vibrant lirico-spinto soprano lost color at the top, while the high C’s in her big aria were lunged at rather than hit squarely. Even so, I can think of few, if any, Verdi sopranos currently active who could sing Elvira this well.
It was hard to tell whether tracheitis or problems of technique were responsible for Licitra’s tightness on top and his occasional failure to produce a real legato. Still, he sang honorably under difficult circumstances.
Despite patches of dry, woofy tone, Italian bass Giacomo Prestia made a solid Lyric debut as Silva, the vengeful grandee who presumes to compete with two younger rivals for Elvira’s hand.
Andrew Patner in the Sun-Times is more critical:
Tuesday night, Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its first revival of “Ernani” (1844) in a new production, no less, of a work that had its Lyric debut only in 1984, ostensibly to commemorate the new critical edition of the opera by the University of Chicago’s Philip Gossett and his colleagues. But Lyric’s 1984 cast refused to pay the corrected and historically verified score any mind, and there was a bit of a scandal in the opera world.
With whole new generations of Verdi singers coming up, it’s a shame that Lyric couldn’t have followed the pathbreaking scholarship 25 years later. This version is being performed with many cuts, so new insights will have to wait for another day.
Still, the availability of new Verdi singers also give Lyric audiences a chance to see a work that they might otherwise know only as a template for the convoluted plots and spirited choruses of the operetta parodies of Gilbert and Sullivan. Alas, the opera house is not immune to seasonal cold bugs, and a couple of the singers sounded under the weather.
Chicago area native Sondra Radvanovsky was the standout as Elvira, pursued by all three of the male leads in this potboiler of love, honor, vengeance and ambition in 16th century Spain. Though her diction was not as clear as she is capable of, the soprano projected a Callas-like vulnerability and a fine intensity. In the title role of the bandit-impersonating aristocrat, Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra actually came much more to life after an announcement following the first intermission of his indisposition. Israeli baritone Boaz Daniel, too, built up his presence as Don Carlo throughout the evening, and Italian bass Giacomo Prestia, in his Lyric debut, grew into the honor-mad Silva as the plot followed its winding path.
I notice that, too. All of the principals seemed to improved as the opera progressed. So, for example, I thought that Licitra’s first act was pretty strong but I was disappointed with him in the second act. However, he continued to improve through the end of the opera. I wonder if that’s not the sign of lingering illness.
Lawrence Johnson, writing for Chicago Classical Review, is more positive:
Despite being hobbled, literally, by leg and foot injuries, Sondra Radvanovsky proved herself a trouper for keeping her Lyric commitment. The Berwyn-born soprano’s Verdian bona fides are well known, but Tuesday her Elvira managed to surpass even the highest expectations. Radvanovsky’s lustrous soprano was resplendent in Act 1 with a glorious Ernani, involami, beautifully sung with rich, even tone and notable dramatic expression; she tossed off the ensuing cabaletta Tutto sprezzo with fleet and vivacious coloratura.
The only complaint about her Elvira was that there wasn’t more of her (blame Verdi), but Radvanovsky illuminated her every moment on stage, with natural acting and sterling vocalism, her brilliant top notes cutting through the massed ensembles with gleaming impact. Apart from a barely perceptible limp, the singer disguised her physical condition so successfully—kneeling, running and doing all that is asked of her in this production—that her injuries are a non-issue.
After Act 1, it was announced that her Ernani, Salvatore Licitra, was ailing from tracheitis, but would continue the performance. That would help to account for the rather short-breathed phrases and the tenor’s husky rasp on his low notes.
But for the most part, Licitra made a worthy hero, vocally and dramatically. At its best, Licitra’s tenor has the requisite Italianate warmth, volume and lyric squillo, and Licitra was credible dramatically in a thankless role, with powerful top notes and his voice blending gracefully with Radvanovsky in the duets and final scene.
As so often with Verdi, the villains in Ernani are infinitely more interesting than the hero, and few more so than Silva, the aged grandee intent on marrying Elvira. The old, rich man who lusts after the beautiful young girl was a buffa staple even at the time of Ernani’s premiere (Don Pasquale had premiered just the year before), yet Verdi makes Silva much more than an archetype. While Carlo rises above his less worthy qualities by the end of the opera, Silva gives full vent to them, descending from a rather touching old man to an embittered monster intent on extracting his revenge at the cost of destroying two lives.
Giacomo Prestia made a sensational Lyric Opera debut as Silva. The lovelorn old duke is often in danger of coming across as slightly comic, yet Prestia cut an imposing and dangerous figure, the towering Italian bass looking like he could drop-kick both Ernani and Carlo without breaking a sweat.
Prestia’s instrument is extraordinary, a booming basso that he wielded with refinement and expressive poise, as with his opening aria, Infelice, e tuo credevi. Throughout Prestia was alive to the drama without ever descending to mere bluster, his huge voice and stylish singing contributing mightily to the impact of the climactic trio and the overall success of this production.
Boaz Daniel’s burnished voice is less inherently Italianate than the rest of the cast, but the Israeli baritone made an equally well-rounded character out of Carlo, the king who rises above personal jealousy and animosity upon his election as emperor (would that more Illinois politicians would do the same in a less royal capacity). Daniel was a forceful, vividly painted Carlo and made the most of his several arias, bringing the requisite intensity to the tomb scene with a magnificent O de’verd’anni miei.
