Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center – Family Circle
(Seat H106, $45.50).
Story. Elvira is
in love with Ernani, who has become a bandit after losing his royal title as
Don Juan of Aragon. Elvira is in turned
loved by Don de Silva, a Spanish grandee, and Don Carlo, the king of
Spain. When Ernani and Don Carlo (in
disguise) happen to be in Elvira’s room together, Silva walks in on them. After Don Carlo’s identify is revealed, he
allows Ernani to leave. As the
preparations for the marriage of Elvira and Silva get underway, Ernani shows up
in disguise. He confronts Elvira who
then tells him she intends to kill herself at the wedding.
When the king enters, Silva saves Ernani’s life by hiding him; they also
agree to join forces to kill the King.
Ernani in turn pledges his life with his hunting horn, promising Silva
that he will kill himself when the horn is sounded. While the conspirators are planning the
assassination of Don Carlo, the king of Spain is elected the Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor then
decrees the noble rebels to be executed and the commoners imprisoned. Ernani reveals his identity as a
nobleman. Elvira's pleas make the Emperor
pardon everyone. As Ernani is about to
marry Elvira, Silva sounds his horn and demands Ernani kill himself. After Ernani plunges a dagger in his own
heart, Elvira pulls it out and kills herself with it.
Conductor – Marco Armiliato. Ernani – Marcello Giordani, Elvira Silva’s
niece and betrothed – Angela Meade; Don Carlo, king of Spain – Dmitri Hvorostovsky;
Don Ruy Gomez de Silva, a Spanish grandee – Ferruccio Furlanetto.
The synopses both at the Metopera website and in the
playbill are pretty bland. And in
general it reflects the story which requires a lot of filling in of the background
by the audience member. The Story above has elements in the opera but not in
the synopses. What I didn’t expect was that Elvira would also kill herself, and
that the scene would end with Silva standing above the two dead lovers proclaiming the
power of revenge. In some sense that
last scene reflects this opera, it has great potential, but that potential wasn’t
fulfilled.
The performance started at 1:00 pm and ended at around
4:30 pm. However, with two intermissions
(about 35 minutes each) and two changes of scenes (at about 5 minutes each), the
actual performance felt quite short. As
with Nabucco, I wish the characters and the storyline are developed a bit more
fully so I didn’t have to supply a lot of imagination. On the other hand, this is one of Verdi’s
earlier operas (fifth out of 28), and melodies abound. They are not as singable as those in, say, La
Traviata, and I didn’t know any of them.
As the Program Notes describes, the orchestra’s role is mainly
accompaniment. Nonetheless it put in an
excellent performance. While the sound
of the horn brought on the dread that Ernani had to kill himself, it
was very effective.
Angela Meade must be part of the Met’s future. Looking over her biography in the Playbill,
one may come to the conclusion that she is positioned as the next Anna
Netrebko. Her voice is strong throughout
her considerable range, but is a bit on the harsh side in the “high-loud” area,
and she had a lot of trouble with the many trills that are called for in this
opera. But her “high-soft” is just
exquisite, it floats graciously throughout the theatre (we were seated in the
mid-Family Circle area.) She certainly
held her own against the three male singers. She can't quite compare with Netrebko when her back is to the audience, though.
Other principals (the three suitors) did quite well
also. Hvorostovsky as Don Carlo was weak
at times. (Disclosure: it may have been Furlanetto as Silva.) The chorus was unexpectedly
weak, which is unusual; perhaps somehow the sound didn’t carry well to our
area?
The sets are quite massive, and serve their purposes
well. That makes the scene changes a bit
unwieldy, and most likely contributed to the time it took to complete. I find it amusing that there are all these
steps people have to walk up and down, must be quite exhausting.
The audience was very enthusiastic and applauded on many
occasions. Many well deserved, some a
bit doubtful. Perhaps that this
performance was broadcast live added to that enthusiasm. We had coffee at the Rubenstein Atrium after the concert,
before we drove down to Jersey City to have dinner with Kuau and Ellie at Amelia’s.
Today was a windy day (gusts reported to be up in the 50
mph range) and we had trouble walking on the streets. It actually snowed a bit, even though the
temperature was in the 40s. No
accumulation though.
The New York Times reviewer saw another tenor in the role
of Ernani. The review has some
interesting background information on the set and Angela Meade. And he would agree that the story, based on a
play by Victor Hugo, is a bit contrived.
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