I'm not going to lie, Ernani in terms of plot and drama is not one of Verdi's best works(Rigoletto and Otello are his most concise in both areas, with La Traviata and Don Carlo not far off). It does however have some truly fine music and the splendid-drawn character of Silva that does help it to be one of his better early operas. The opera and Verdi do deserve much better treatment than this. I wouldn't say the performance was terrible, but it is only passable and never rises above that. I do prefer the 1983 Met and 1982 La Scala productions far more, the 2012 Met performance was also a worthy one.
The costumes and sets do have a sense of period at least, but at the same time they seemed rather drab in colour and I'd say also old-fashioned as well. The make-up to me seemed over-the-top, almost reminiscent of make-up you'd see with a travelling acting troupe. The technical values are a mixed bag, the lighting is generally good and the picture quality is crisp and clear, but the sound while strong in places is muffled in others and the camera work is rather rough and out-of-sync. If I were to suggest what the weakest asset of the production was it was Pier'Alli's stage direction, where the rapport between the performers on stage is almost non-existent and where almost all of it was directed to the audience and with little emotion. It all seemed too rigid.
Musically, that was uneven too. While the sound doesn't capture them as well as it could have done, the orchestra do play with a taut and vibrant sound with some ravishing tones. The chorus are also rousing at least. It was the conducting where it wasn't so good, it was clearly eager-to-please and there is some good musicality but his mix of fast and languid tempos don't always accommodate the singers. None of the principal singers are really up to what their roles demand, which is quite a lot unfortunately. The best of the four is Carlo Guelfi, who gives Carlo his much needed authority and nobility and there is some good musicianship, phrasing and diction. It was still not what I call a great performance though, there is somewhat of a dry tone to his singing and he has a tendency to bark.
Susan Neves does have her moments, her timbre well-suited to Verdi, she has some soaring top notes and she is excellent in Scene 3, steady and commanding. However, some of her florid passages are sloppy and not always well-supported and she is overall not sincere enough, much of her acting consists of floating around on stage. Giacomo Prestia is noble and imposing at least as Silva, but his voice is very unsteady and he suffers the worst from the tempos with his more controlled legato lines more wobble than elegance. Faring worst is Marco Berti in the title role. By all means it is a little bit better than his terrible Enzo in La Gioconda opposite Gruber, Mastromarino, Colombara, Fiorillo and Komlosi, but at the same time that it is saying little. His vocal production is far too stentorian and tight at the top and he is more wooden than he is heroic.
Overall, has moments but Ernani and Verdi deserve more than what was seen here. 4/10 Bethany Cox
