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Diego Torre as Ernani in bandit mode. Photo: Prudence Upton.
Music / “Ernani”, Italian with English surtitles, Opera Australia and La Scala, Milan, at Sydney Opera House until February 13. Reviewed by
HELEN MUSA.
THE stage play “Hernani” was author Victor Hugo’s most notorious “succès de scandale”.
A tale of love, honour and revolution, it also flouted the conservative rules of the Parisian literati when it first hit the stage in 1830, ushering in the era of romanticism.
With its bandit hero and unconventional rectangular love story – three blokes aspire to the hand of the beauteous Elvira – it seemed almost tailor-made for opera and marked Giuseppe Verdi’s fifth opera and first collaboration with librettist Francesco Maria Piave, the man behind the words for “La Traviata”, “Macbeth” and “Rigoletto”.
Two worlds collide in this triumphant production
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In this new co-production between Opera Australia and Teatro alla Scala, Milan, of Verdiâs fifth opera
Ernani, German director Sven-Eric Bechtolf has placed the work within the context of the making of 19th century theatre.
Stage hands gather during the overture, welcome the singers with respectful obeisance, paint scenery and raise and lower scenery flats from the side with a splendidly archaic set of ropes and pulleys. Julian Crouch and Kevin Pollardâs scene and costume design creates two worlds â cheerful backstage drabness and the gaudy brilliant otherworld of theatrical illusion.
Opera Australia embraces rapid COVID-19 testing to get back on stage
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Former operatic baritone Lyndon Terracini never keeps tickets from the productions in which he has been involved. But one is so historic he plans to frame it.
“I’ll never forget March 14, 2020,” says Opera Australia’s artistic director.
It was the second night of
Attila, the little-performed Verdi classic staged in Australia only because of the agreement forged with Milan’s legendary opera house La Scala.
“I was sitting in G25. We did two performances then we were kicked out of the Opera House,” Terracini says. “That night Australia went into COVID lockdown.”