Intense Confrontation in Music and Vision May 15

Intense Confrontation
Verdi's 'Ernani' - more revolutionary than patriotic,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Ernani, Verdi's fifth opera, in the current Teatro Comunale di Bologna production, could be a good device to set aside, once and forever, the myth of Verdi as a front line patriot of the Italian unification movement (Risorgimento). The composer was about thirty years old when, after a long gestation, the opera was completed. He was not a patriot at all (in the sense intended during Risorgimento), but a red hot revolutionary like his peer (in terms of age) Richard Wagner who, a couple of years earlier, had completed and staged Rienzi, der Letzt der Tribunen ('Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes'). The three act Wagner opera lasts almost five hours, whilst Verdi's four act Ernani develops an involved plot in little over two hours, but with three intermissions in Bologna, the performance ran from 8pm until 11.30pm.
Nonetheless, both operas have a young revolutionary fever ... actually, a high fever. As we know, at that time Wagner had become an associate of Bakunin; thus, his revolutionary thoughts aimed at nothing less than turning the whole world upside down. Verdi's intention were more limited; his rebellion was against the religion of his fathers and forefathers because God Almighty had let his wife and his children die in a very short time span. His revolt was also against an establishment which did not appreciate at all his out-of-wedlock relationship with the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi (who later became his wife). Verdi was not against the Austro-Hungarian domination of a good part of Northern Italy. Indeed, the opera had been commissioned for a fabulous fee (12,000 Austrian lire) by the Venetian Theatre La Fenice, one of the most important opera houses of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Ruy and Rudy Park in the title role of Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2011 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution
The subject was meant to be revolutionary right from the beginning. Verdi and Francesco Maria Piave (author of the libretto) had toyed extensively with the idea of an opera on Cromwell, after a Walter Scott novel. They finally turned to Victor Hugo's Hernani which, ten years earlier, was French Romanticism's flag against traditional Neo-Classical theatre. The protagonist, Ernani is a nobleman who has become a bandit not because he aimed at some national unity of Spain in the sixteenth century but because he wanted his territories to secede from Spain and from the rest of the Holy Roman Empire. As a matter of fact, his adversaries are Don Carlo, King of Spain, about to became Emperor of the entire Holy Roman Empire (as he does in the third act, set in Aachen) and the Spanish Grandee Don Ruy Gomez de Silva. To make things more complicated -- should there have been any need -- both Don Carlo and Don Ruy are attracted by Ernani's woman, Elvira. This mix of politics, power, passion and rebellion is the most appropriate to ignite the opera's tragic end.

Dimitra Theodossiou as Elvira in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2011 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution
Verdi took great care in the preparation of the libretto. He intervened in several important points by insisting, for instance, that each and every word should be fully understood by the audience; in this way, his work on music theatre had many points in common with that being conducted, at the same time, by Richard Wagner, even though they were not aware of each other's activities. Also, as clearly shown by Verdi's published correspondence and analyzed in a brilliant essay by musicologist Daniele Spini, Verdi fought hard (and won) to have the role of Ernani set for a tenor not for an alto (according to the custom of the time). Ernani is the first 'Verdian tenor' with a very clear timbre, a special phrasing and melodious arias to mold the nineteenth century melodrama. Thus, also the score was, in 1844, revolutionary, even though it is largely made of 'forme chiuse', set pieces which could even be published separately and used for chamber music concerts (often in aristocratic palaces). There is, however, a major departure from the operatic conventions of the time: the customary brilliant rondo for the prima donna is replaced by an extended trio lasting almost half an hour (like the terzettone of Rossini's Maometto Secondo which Verdi could not have heard because Rossini's opera had been performed only once at the San Carlo in Naples in 1820 and had been modified for a few performances in Venice in 1822).

Rudy Park in the title role of Verdi's 'Ernani' with Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Ruy at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2011 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution
Ernani quickly became immensely popular and was revived very often during its early years. Verdi also revised it, by adding an aria with chorus at the request of nobody less than Gioacchino Rossini, and also a cabaletta. Its fortune declined as the years went by. Now, it is seldom performed, even though among Verdi's early operas it is the best to fully appreciate the path leading to Il Trovatore.

Rudy Park in the title role of Verdi's 'Ernani' with Dimitra Theodossiou as Elvira at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2011 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution
The Bologna production is, by and large, a revival of a 1999 Palermo staging. The set is traditional; the stage is sliding to provide for a deeper perspective; one single frame is utilized to change, by means of painted curtains, the various places of the action which extends all over Spain and even (in the third act) as far as Aachen in the heart of Central Europe; there are as many as four changes of scene in the first act. The scenes and the costumes are entrusted to well known architect painter Francesco Zito, who does not attempt to move the time and the place of the plot from 1520 (or thereabout) to the Italian Risorgimento (as it often happens); rather his sets are inspired by well known paintings. Within this setting, Beppe De Tomasi's staging concentrates on personal conflicts, carefully controlling the complex sequence of actions necessary to bring characters into intense confrontation. This allows -- another of Verdi's innovations in Ernani -- for the solo arias and duets to be easily expanded, and for gathering a sense of real musical drama.

A scene from Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2011 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution
Roberto Pollastri was in the pit on 11 May 2011, the opening night of the production, and the basis for this review. Normally, he is well known for his work on twentieth century and even contemporary composers. Also, often Ernani's orchestration is considered a simple play for routine conductors. Instead, Pollastri gave strength to the musical drama by enhancing the control over the dynamic of each entire Act, not of the individual musical numbers. Right from the prelude he sets forth all the musical ideas featuring the two main dramatic issues of the opera: the solo trumpet and trombone theme (Ernani's fatal oath to Don Ruy) and the lyrical theme capturing Ernani and Elvira's love.

Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Ruy in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2011 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution
Ernani requires singers as great as in Il Trovatore. Elvira was one of Dame Joan Sutherland's favorite roles. Dimitra Theodossiou took up the task; the audience felt she was at ease from the andantino of the cavatina Ernani Involami and all the ornamental gestures that follow it; she exploded in all her vocal abilities in the finale, her duet with Ernani (Rudy Park replaced Roberto Aronica who was ill) become a trio with Don Ruy (Ferruccio Furlanetto), a real profusion of melodic ideas where the lyricism of Theodossiou and Park is contrasted with the grave dissonance of Furlanetto. Theodossiou and Furlanetto received real accolades from the audience, and Park a good deal of open stage and curtain applauses.

Dimitra Theodossiou as Elvira in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2011 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution
Park had the right pitch, from the cavatina in double aria format on to the second act andante of jealousy, till Ferma, Crudel, Estinguere in the last act. Furlanetto is a veteran of the Don Ruy role; with age, his acute are not as pure as they used to be, but he makes up with his deep grave tonalities. Marco Di Felice is a comparatively young baritone for the part of Don Carlo. He excelled in O' De' Verd'anni Miei, the third act aria which is the turning point of the drama; in the aria he was able to express the extreme change of atmosphere -- from somber musical recollections of a florid baritone to new-found strength and broadness of expression.
The chorus, conducted by Lorenzo Fratini, deserves a special mention, especially for Si Ridesti il Leon di Castiglia.
Overall, a good success.
Copyright © 15 May 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GIUSEPPE VERDI
FRANCESCO MARIA PIAVE
BOLOGNA
ITALY
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