Verdi’s Ernani is set in the reign of Charles V of Spain just before he becomes Holy Roman Emperor (1519), not that there’s anything remotely historical about the plot which is classic love and revenge stuff.  The reason I mention it is because I’m trying to understand what director Lotte de Beer is driving at in the production staged and filmed at Bregenz in 2023.

It’s quite abstract.  It starts out with just a sort of low greyish dome at centre stage. Elvira’s bedroom is a white paper cube with a bed in it.  And so on.  Costuming is also odd.  Everybody looks very scruffy.  The ladies wear bloomers and bodices and ruffs and sometimes crinoline hoops; mostly minus the dress.  The men are in anything from wifebeaters to strangely stained uniforms with 11th century style helmets.  Carlos is bare chested and wears a gold paper crown.  He gets a bigger one when he is elected emperor.  On top pf this we get lots of fights and acrobatics, some really brutal beatings, possible rape and lots of blood which spatters all over the mostly white set.

The overall effect is that Carlos is the not very regal leader of a scruffy gang of thugs who really doesn’t need to bother too much about low lifes like Ernani and has beens like Silva (and their less impressive and less brutal gangs of thugs)  as he pursues global power.  I can only wonder whether this isn’t some sort of statement about the Habsburgs and what they will bring in a hundred years time.  We are, after all, in Austria.

Whatever one makes of the visuals the action actually plays out pretty straight and the music making is terrific.  Samir Pirgu, in the title role, is everything one could want from a Verdi tenor and a good actor and Guanqun Yu as Elvira is equally good.  She’s got a nic e combination of heft and sweetness and she packs some serious coloratura.  Franco Vassallo kind of swaggers his way through Don Carlo.  It’s an odd acting performance but, see above, I think Carlos is being made a bit ridiculous deliberately.  He’s a fine singer when he needs to be though.  One hears all three at their best in the Act 1 trio which is most exciting.

Silva is played by Goran Jurić as quite dilapidated which makes his desire for Elvira a bit uncomfortable.  He uses a walker most of the time.  But he’s still got a fine, powerful, bass voice.  The minor roles are all handled perfectly adequately.  Enrique Mazzola conducts and it’s a red blooded, exciting reading of the score backed up by excellent playing from the Wiener Philharmoniker and terrific work from the Prague Philharmonic Choir who have lots to do and work quite seamlessly with the acrobats etc from Stunt-Factory.

Video direction is by Tiziano Mancini and it’s pleasantly unobtrusive.  Sound (the usual DTS-HD-MA and PCM stereo) and picture on Blu-ray are well up to standard.  The booklet has a synopsis, a track listing and a short essay but could definitely use director’s notes.  Subtitle options are Italian, English, german, French, Spanish, Korean and Japanese.

The production does mystify me a bit but not in a particularly annoying way and the music side is terrific.  I think I prefer it to the 2022 version from MMF.

Catalogue information: Unitel Blu-ray 768204