Premiere of this production: 4 July 2025
Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes
The performance has one interval
As in any Romantic opera, Ernani begins with love. The classic triangle of soprano and tenor versus baritone is complicated by a fourth player: a bass. A brigand, a king and an aging nobleman compete for the same woman. All are of noble birth, and all burn with passion. Yet even more than love, it is honour that drives them – onor is sung fourteen times throughout the opera, disonor four more. In Ernani honour is fate: absolute and merciless. Verdi, in keeping with the spirit of Romanticism, made fate one of the opera’s rare leitmotifs. In this worldview to lose one’s honour is a kind of social death – and to regain it may require physical death. The hero willingly sacrifices both love and life on the altar of dignity.
The thirst for revenge flows like blood: blades are drawn again and again, men threaten to kill one another, a woman vows to stab herself at the altar, and the titular hero dies by his own hand – albeit against his will. Based on Victor Hugo’s 1830 play, the opera offers a treasure trove for any stage designer: a mountain gorge, ancient Spanish castles, the Gothic vaults of Aachen Cathedral – all set against the backdrop of Spain’s Golden Age.
This was the ideal subject for Verdi to build on the success of Nabucco (1842) and I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843) and to expand his renown beyond Italy. Premiered in Venice in 1844, Ernani remained one of Verdi’s most frequently staged operas throughout the 19th century. Today, although productions are relatively rare, the music continues to be a staple of recital halls and vocal competitions.
The opera boasts magnificent arias, ensembles and choruses, fully on par with the mature Verdi. Here the elegance of bel canto is infused with the young composer’s trademark dramatic urgency. The opera’s appeal lies in the beauty of its melodies, the rhythmic vitality of its dance and martial themes, the bold orchestral colours and the expertly paced climaxes – each scene ending with a guaranteed ovation.
As poet and intellectual W.H. Auden once observed: no matter how much an operatic heroine may suffer, we are never in doubt that both she and we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. That is precisely the feeling Ernani inspires – even when the stage echoes with cries of sangue! sangue! and vendetta! vendetta! Verdi’s “cloak-and-dagger” opera returns to the Mariinsky Theatre stage to offer every opera lover a thrilling night at the theatre. Khristina Batyushina
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