A revival of Verdi’s “Ernani” at the Met on Thursday proved tastefully understated. In other words, it missed the point entirely.
This tuneful tale of unbridled passion among highly fictional Spanish royalty in the 1500s focuses on the down-and-out nobleman turned bandit Ernani. He’s madly in love with the beautiful Elvira, who is engaged to her creepy old uncle Silva. She has also caught the eye of Carlo, the future king of France.
Four acts of vows, oaths, declarations of love and death threats are packed with gems of Verdi’s early style: soaring arias, rousing choruses, passionate duets. Finally, the king orders Ernani and Elvira to wed, but a happy ending is narrowly averted by a double suicide.
It’s the sort of show you have to play to the hilt or not at all, and the Met’s production fell somewhere in the middle. The only singer who achieved an ideal combination of vocal heft and dramatic commitment was bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, with only a trace of wobble on his high notes betraying that he is now in the fourth decade of his career.
The elegant musical style and glamorous star presence of Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the king offset his slightly undersize baritone. His third-act aria with quiet cello accompaniment began exquisitely, a master class in Verdi singing. But when the full orchestra chimed in, the voice evaporated.
In contrast, Angela Meade as Elvira offered plenty of sound, her shimmering soprano soaring effortlessly to repeated high C’s. Her singing, though, lacked passion: This pleasant, well-balanced young woman is not the type to die for love.
Yet she seemed practically a tigress next to Roberto De Biasio’s Ernani. He’s handsome enough to do nighttime soaps, and his tenor sounded big and true. But as one of opera’s most over-the-top hotheads, he came off like a bit player announcing “dinner is served.”
The brash orchestration of “Ernani” needs a firm conductor to give it shape, but Marco Armiliato managed only noisy routine. The production, devised in 1983 by Pier Luigi Samaritani, boasts more staircases than the Ziegfeld Follies and Grand Central Terminal combined. The 3 1/2-hour performance was split about evenly between music and set changes.
Met honcho Peter Gelb talks a lot about how opera should be great theater. This “Ernani” is a perfect example of how not to do that.