Ernani is an opera dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. First production: La Fenice Theatre, Venice, March 9, 1844.
Ernani is a rarely-heard work. Most recently it was performed by Opera Boston in May 2008. The New York Metropolitan Opera House performed it in March-April 2008, returning to the "The Met" - as it is commonly known - for the first time since 1985.
Mountains of Aragon
The bandits demand the reason for Ernani's gloom. (Chorus of bandits: "To you we drink"; and "Ernani, so gloomy? Why, oh strong one, does care sit on your brow?") Ernani replies (Recitative: "Thanks, dear friends"; Cavatina: "As the flower turns to the sun") that he loves Elvira, who is to be led unwillingly to the altar by old Gomez de Silva. He asks the bandits to abduct her. In Elvira's apartment, (Scene: "Now sinks the sun and Silva does not return"; Cavatina: "Ernani, Ernani, save me.") Silva's...
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