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Ernani - Performance History
First performance: 9 March 1844, Teatro La Fenice, Venice

Cast:

Ernani:

Carlo Guasco (Primo Tenore)


Don Carlo: Antonio Superchi (Primo Baritono)


Silva: Antonio Selva (Basso Comprimario)


Elvira: Sofia Löwe (Prima Donna Soprano)


Giovanna: Laura Saini (Seconda Donna Soprano)


Don Riccardo: Giovanni Lanner (Secondo Tenore)


Jago: Andrea Bellini (Secondo Basso)


First performance in:

Austria: 30 May 1844, Vienna

Portugal: 1 Jan 1845, Lisbon

Spain: 4 Mar 1845, Madrid

England: 8 Mar 1845, London (His Majesty's Theatre)

Algeria: 31 May 1845, Algiers

Netherlands: 1845, Amsterdam

Belgium: 17 Dec 1845, Brussels

Germany: 27 Dec 1845, Berlin (Königstädtiches Theater)

France: 6 Jan 1846, Paris (Théâtre des Italiens)

Turkey: 1846, Constantinople

Denmark: 1846, Copenhagen

Malta: 1846, Valletta

Hungary: 6 Aug 1846, Budapest

Switzerland: 10 Oct 1846, Lugano

Russia: Oct 1846, St. Petersburg

Cuba: 1847, Havana

United States: 15 Apr 1847, New York

Chile: 1847, Santiago

Sweden: 1848, Stockholm

Argentina: 26 Jul 1849, Buenos Aires

Norway: Aug 1849, Christiania

Czech Republic: 15 Dec 1849, Prague

Mexico: 15 May 1850, Mexico

Ukraine: 1850, Lemberg

Poland: 25 Jan 1851, Warsaw

Ireland: 24 Feb 1851, Dublin

California: Feb 1851, San Francisco

Croatia: 19 Mar 1852, Zagreb

Georgia: Feb 1854, Tiflis

Venezuela: Oct 1854, Caracas

Brazil: 11 Nov 1854, Rio de Janeiro

Uruguay: 25 Aug 1856, Montevideo (Teatro Solis; 1st opera performed there)

Australia: Apr 1857, Sydney

Romania: 1857, Bucharest

Finland: 19 Jul 1857, Helsinki

Lithuania: 2 Feb 1860, Wilna

Colombia: 1865, Bogotá

Indonesia: 7 Dec 1866, Soerabaya

Egypt: Dec 1869, Cairo

Philippines: 8 Dec 1888, Manila

Slovenia: 1893, Ljubljana

South Africa: 1895, Cape Town

Latvia: 30 Jan 1931, Riga

First performance at:

Berlin Staatsoper: 16 May 1859

Wiener Hofoper: 18 May 1876

Metropolitan Opera: 28 Jan 1903 (43 performances in 9 seasons through 1975-76)

San Francisco Opera: 28 Sep 1968 (11 performances in 2 seasons through 1995, most
recently in 1984)

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Even if Verdi was disappointed with the performance at the première ("Guasco had no
more voice, he was awfully raucous"; "it is not possible to sing more false notes than Ms. Löwe did"), the opera's popularity, at first only moderate, grew very fast.

Even the open disapproval of an angry Victor Hugo, who condemned the way his drama had been arranged by Verdi and Piave, could not slow the opera's storm of all the major and minor theaters of Italy and the world.

In the following months Ernani was performed in 14 other Italian cities.

It quickly became and remained Verdi's most performed opera until the end of the 1850's.

In the period 1844-1859, La Scala in Milan and the San Carlo in Naples each staged Ernani during 8 seasons, totalling 240 performances at those theatres alone!

In the years after 1860 Ernani came to be relegated to the repertoire of the popular and provincial stages, being replaced at the major theaters by newer works.

By the turn of the century it was only performed for celebrated singers who had Ernani roles in their own repertoire, especially the baritone Mattia Battistini, known as the greatest interpreter of Carlo. (Verdi called him "The King of the baritones, the baritone of the kings", because of the artistry he brought to aristocratic roles).

Ernani had a brief moment of glory in the 1920's, when it was performed at the Metropolitan with Giovanni Martinelli, Rosa Ponselle, Giuseppe De Luca, and José Mardones. These singers left some wonderful recordings of single arias (see the discography).

In the 1950's Ernani experienced a renewel of interest and began a return to the main repertoire, thanks to conductors like Dimitri Mitropoulos, Thomas Schippers, and Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and singers like

Carlo Bergonzi,

Mario Del Monaco, and Leontyne Price.