Giovanna Silva

Decca proudly presents the Complete Works by Giuseppe Verdi in a single 75 CD box set. From the ever-popular “Aida” to the obscure “Alzira,” all 28 of Giuseppe Verdi's operas are here as well as his Sacred Works, Arias, Songs, Ballet Music, the String quartet and other rarities.

The première of Ernani at Venices' Teatro La Fenice in 1844 failed to come up to Verdi's expectations, primarily because of the poor health of some of the singers. Both critics and audiences, however, soon warmed to Ernani, especially after the following performances. The opera contains some of Verdi's most successful, impassioned arias (first and foremost Elvira's cavatina and Silva's cantabile) and clearly denoted an evolution in terms of dramatic structure, more cohesive and with lesser use of blocks of closed numbers. Despite a turbulent 'premiere', Ernani became a real international success, beginning with the felicitous Vienna productions of May/June 1844. The cast of this Teatro Regio of Parma production features some of today's best singers for this type of repertoire.

Giuseppe Verdis Ernani is a vibrant adaptation for the lyric stage of one of the most flamboyant dramas by the French poet. Both the composer and his librettist have combined Hugos verbal eloquence with the right musical temperament. Perfect example of Grand opera with chorus, the magnificent Act III is above all the first time Verdi draws the very precise contours of what is about to become a type of voice in itself: the Verdi-baritone. In Ernani he starts to focus as never before on the psychological side of his characters. All his operas after Ernani will follow the same path in his perpetual quest of the truth.