W. J. Henderson within the Solar:
We lack the attitude now for the right enjoyment of “Ernani.” Consider the impact of its audulatory perspective towards the holy particular person of a King upon the Italy of sixty years in the past seething with revolutionary thought. Each line of a few of its scenes had a direct message for the auditors. To us they imply nothing. Once more Italy had fallen asleep in Bellini and solely half woke up in Donizetti. The fierce, brutal blasts of this riotous music – riotous in its conflict towards the refinements of true artwork shook the Italians from their repose and thrilled them with the consciousness of a brand new drive. If we may hear solely Donizetti for a winter, we, too, ought to begin into a brand new life on the blast of Ernani’s horn.
However all the ability of the work was for sixty years in the past. We’re listening to it in a phonographic replica. It’s a slim whisper down the rusty wire of time. All we get out of it’s the hurly-burly of its flare of brass, the bleating of its comet solos, and its blatant juxtaposition of dramatic outbursts with hurdy-gurdy dance music of the ante-Verdian inventory. We cull a couple of bits – “O tu che l’alma adora,” “Ernani involami,” “Infelice, o tu credevi,” and the remainder and mutter religious thanks that we nonetheless have some few singers who know methods to voice these tunes. Then we select our sensations after it’s all over, and resolve that it’s laborious to be a toddler once more, even only for one evening. “Faust” and “Romeo et Juliette” – yea, even “Les Huguenots” – have made operatic previous folks of us and we don’t take care of our little porringer anymore.
The efficiency was attention-grabbing, and nonetheless extra so was the perspective of the viewers. It was a big viewers, one of many largest of the season, and it had come out with the expectation of getting a type of good previous occasions it had examine. It was well worth the value of an orchestral stall to see its bottled-up enthusiasm oozing away. After a couple of ineffectual makes an attempt to fan itself right into a glow over the shopworn arias and duets and trios, it settled itself right down to a really correct recognition of the singing of the principals.
Right here, certainly, it discovered ample area for demonstrations of approval within the matchless artwork of Mme. Sembrich. She was in her personal area, her kingdom by which the royal purple of sovereign glory decks her honest shoulders. She reigned proper splendidly, and all of the others within the solid have been however humble followers of her courtly practice. She overtopped all of them by the supremacy of her lovely type, the type of the previous Italian college which bequeathed to the world operas of the “Ernani” sort and the varsity for singing them.
It could be idle to go although the rating and identify the airs and duets by which Mme. Sembrich’s artwork shone most brightly, for that methodology of musical chronicling is about worn out; however those that heard final evening’s efficiency will cherish reminiscences of her “Ernani involami” and her “Tutto sprezzo che d’Ernani” as among the many brightest examples of her supply. Such works as “Ernani” cannot outlive their usefulness altogether whereas they supply notes for such singers. However alas! The place are the rising stars of the varsity?
Not one of the different singers was heard to nice benefit. Mr. Scotti was Don Carlo, Mr. de Marchi Ernani and Edouard de Reszke Don Ruy Gomez de Silva. All of them did solely an excessive amount of singing off the important thing and Mr. de Reszke’s “Infelice” was extraordinarily infelicitous. Mr. Scotti was explosive and offended in type and solely a couple of times did he sing a easy cantilena appropriate to the music. Actually all three of the boys imported into “Ernani” the pulsatile declamatory type of the contemporaneous Italy lyric drama, and it didn’t match the previous lullabies of the early nineteenth century.
The refrain fell into line extra simply and shaped the time-honored semi-circle, retired up stage throughout rests and rushed right down to the footlights to shout the excessive notes, simply as choruses did when younger blood ran heat within the counselship of Mapleson. Mr. Mancinelli carried out the opera with data and vigor. No matter he could consider the quaint music, he reverences Verdi an excessive amount of to slight his work. The orchestra had no hassle in disposing of its share of the night’s labors. The blowers of brass earned their cash and far sympathy.
On at the present time in 1916 Granados’ Goyescas premiered on the Met.
Birthday anniversaries of author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873), soprano Frances Yeend (1918), bass Ezio Flagello (1931), composer John Tavener (1944) and bass-baritone Spiro Malas (1933).
