🎭 Opera review by DeannaIsaaacs of Ernani, a rarely performed piece by Verdi, at the LyricOpera
This is the dreaded territory of unintentional humor. Victor Hugo, who wrote the play that inspired Ernani, couldn’t disassociate himself fast enough.
Laughable fealty to irrelevant codes of honor? Yes. Unbelievable reversals? Yes. A king so smitten he risks an empire just to get into the pants of his object of desire? Yes! We should no doubt cut Verdi and his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, some slack; this 1844 opera was their first collaboration. They might not even be responsible for the pop-up ghost. But the story is so ludicrous, they might as well have had their King Charles imagining life as a tampon.There’s no chemistry in this stand-and-sing production, directed by Louisa Muller.