Lyric’s solid cast is led by the familiar Russell Thomas, whose darkly burnished tenor lent a conscience-tempering gravitas to the title role from first to last. He proposed it to the head of the Teatro La Fenice, praising its “action ready-made.” When Verdi read Hugo’s play, he was enamored of the struggle between love and honor that drives the crazy plot twists.

And it’s worth recalling that when the opera first appeared, Verdi, inspired by the French romanticist Hugo, was chomping at the bit to break out of old style musical conventions and write radical, plot-driven works. These are plot elements that would try a modern audience’s patience, were there not also so much heavenly music. Did I mention that Elvira is also sought after by Carlos, the King of Spain, who tried to abduct her? Or that Ernani, the nobly born hero, has.spent a lot of time recently as a bandit? In Verdi’s opera, Ernani’s honor-bound death leaves the young heroine Elvira bereft of the man she loves and facing the likely prospect of a forced marriage to her uncle and guardian Don Ruy Gómez de Silva, the very man who ultimately demands Ermani’s self-inflicted death. His “Fiddler” puts the 19th-century story in a 21st-century envelope.Įrnani, tenor Russell Thomas, faces peril in every way. The opera classic, with an all-American cast of top-flight Verdians, has been sharing stage time with the Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof” in a riveting directorial treatment by the Australian Barrie Kosky, who developed it for the Berlin Opera. The sumptuous sets and costumes, designed by Scott Marr, first seen in the 2009-2020 season and further enhanced in collaboration with Muller, are grand in every way. Giuseppe Verdi’s 1844 opera “Ernani” could hardly be conducted, directed or sung more beautifully than it is at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where a quartet of lead singers make some all but impossible scenarios ring true under the leadership of music director Enrique Mazzola and theatrical director Louisa Muller. 1 ★★★★ musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” through Oct. (Cory Weaver photo) Review: “Ernani’ by Giuseppe Verdi, through Oct.

Verdi’s “Ernani,” after a play by Victor Hugo, opened the Lyric Opera of Chicago season in grand fashion with a sumptuous revival of the Scott Marr production.

Verdi opera set during the 5th century