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Ernani

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Ernani is an early Verdi opera (1844) and it’s not performed that often (16th most performed Verdi opera according to Operabase).  It was given at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2022, in a production by Leo Muscato, which was recorded for video release.  How you react to it may partly depend on how you feel about bel canto operas on (more or less) serious themes.  This is an opera about unrequited love and revenge (lots of revenge) but, in typical bel canto style, the music doesn’t always fit the mood.  So here we open on a prelude where Ernani’s bandit gang are sorting out the corpses from their latest skirmish while the orchestra plays a rather jolly tune, then they break into a drinking song and then Ernani enters and sings a rather lovely cavatina.  There are places where the music is darker and some of it is really rather good.  In particular there are some strong duets for Ernani and his (everyone’s) love interest Elvira.  Overall, I rather liked it musically.

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Norma with string

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I rather like recordings from the Macerata Festival where the performances take place in the enormous amphitheatre of the Arena Sferisterio.  Bellini’s Norma is a good choice for such as setting and the 2016 production directed by Luigi di Gangi and Ugo Giacomazzi makes good use of the space.  It also uses string.  The sets are stringy.  The very scruffy Gauls wear shapeless tunics with lots of string over them.  The slightly smarter Romans also wear string.  And everybody plays with string.  There are more strings than in the Princeton Physics Department. There’s lots of face paint too.  The production also makes use of a spectacular multi-coloured lighting plot but, apart from the visuals, is pretty conventional and straightforward.

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