Intergenerational Conflict
GIUSEPPE PENNISI attended a successful
performance of Verdi's 'Ernani' in Rome
After the threat of a strike, Rome's Opera House
started its 2013-14
season
with a gala evening on
27 November 2013 when a new production of
Verdi's Ernani was unveiled. It is
a major
undertaking that will go to Sydney
and São Paulo in Brazil.
The Head of State, the mayor and all the pertinent authorities were in the
central boxes. I was in an orchestra
seat. Some two years ago, I reviewed a different
production when it was staged at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (Intense Confrontation, 15 May 2011).
Ernani, Verdi's fifth opera,
was a commission by
the La Fenice theatre in
Venice
for a fabulous fee (12,000 Austrian
lire). La Fenice is much smaller than the Teatro alla Scala in
Milan
where Verdi's previous operas (Nabucco
and I Lombardi alla Prima
Crociata) had been staged. As I recalled in my 2011
review, at that time
Verdi was a young
angry man 'in revolt'; 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). It was not a political
revolt; La Fenice was one of the most important opera houses of
the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Thus, he drew from Victor Hugo's
play mostly the aspects of confrontation between young Ernani and the mature
Carlos and the old Silva -- all of them in love
with the same woman, Elvira,
who, obviously, wants very badly to get married
with the youngest and most handsome of her three suitors.
 From left to right: Tatiana Serjan as Elvira, Francesco Meli as Ernani and Ildar Abdrazakov as Silva in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Click on the image for higher resolution |
The comparatively small size of La Fenice and this key element of
intergenerational conflict are essential to understand that Ernani is not a large scale
fresco like Nabucco
or I Lombardi
but a more intimate personal drama,
though Verdi did not fail to include a rousing choral
number: Si Ridesti il Leon
di Castiglia.
 Tatiana Serjan as Elvira and Luca Salsi as Don Carlo in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Probably because the audiences in
Rome, Sydney and São Paulo are considered rather traditional,
if not outright conservative, Hugo de Ana provided an impressive,
low cost and easy-to-travel fresco. A huge single set where the walls move to
show the different places where the action
develops (from Spain to
Germany),
a crowd of richly dressed extras (but Roman
opera goers recognized costumes
from other operas), and dancers.
In short, a monumental staging
which wanted to be considered as based on Velazquez paintings,
but which missed the key revolutionary and intimate point. However, the Rome audience
was enthusiastic:
second-hand grandeur works and reviewers nitpick too much.
 Francesco Meli as Ernani (left) and Ildar Abdrazakov as Silva in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Riccardo Muti
was in the pit. This conductor
loves Ernani: in
1982,
he was the excellent musical director of
a Milan production where the audience could sense
the intergenerational drama from the first note. Forty years have gone by. Now,
he offered a less belligerent and less intense
reading; in line
with the monumental approach of
the staging he slowed the tempos in
the second act, for example. He found, of course, his tension in
Si Ridesti il Leon di
Castiglia (which was encored). Also he had an excellent command of
both voices
and orchestra.
 From left to right: Tatiana Serjan as Elvira, Ildar Abdrazakov as Silva and Gianfranco Montresor as Jago in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. 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.
Tatiana Serjan is an excellent dramatic soprano,
not a coloratura
soprano; she was not fully at ease with the andantino
of the cavatina Ernani Involami or all the ornamental gestures
that follow it; but she exploded in all her vocal abilities in the finale,
her duet
with Ernani (an excellent Francesco Meli)
becomes a trio
with Silva (Ildar Abdrazakov), with a real profusion of melodic ideas where the
lyricism of
Serjan and Meli is contrasted
with the grave dissonance of Abdrazakov.
 From left to right: Francesco Meli as Ernani, Tatiana Serjan as Elvira, Simge Buyukedes as Giovanna and Ildar Abdrazakov as Silva in Verdi's 'Ernani' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Meli 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. He has sung
many bel canto
roles and Verdi's writing
for Ernani is
still largely based on Donizetti's
melodramas. Luca Salsi excelled in O'
De' Verd'anni Miei, the third act aria which is the turning point
of the drama; here 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
Roberto Gabbiani,
deserves a special mention, in particular for Si Ridesti il Leon di Castiglia.
Copyright
© 4 December 2013 Giuseppe
Pennisi,
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