Ernani

Bregenz Festspielhaus, Großer Saal, Bregenz, Austria

Scene 1 from the opera "Ernani", photo 2

Scene 2 from the opera "Ernani", photo 3

Scene 3 from the opera "Ernani", photo 4

All photos (4)

Select date and time

7:30 PM

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info

Festival: Bregenz Festival 2023

Type: Opera

City: Bregenz, Austria

Starts at: 19:30

Acts: 4

Sung in: Italian

Titles in: German

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

Festival

Bregenz Festival 2023

An audience favourite returns to the lake stage, the Festspielhaus opera promises to be a dramatic thriller, while the Workshop Theatre presents pieces that are brand new and outrageous. On top of this there are not just large and small but also unconventional concerts, a production apiece by the Opera Studio and the Opera Workshop, plus two stage plays. The 77th Bregenz Festival presents a rich and varied programme for nearly 215,000 visitors.

Overview

Six years before Rigoletto, Giuseppe Verdi had already composed a gripping drama about love and revenge: Ernani – his breakthrough as a composer. The opera was also based on a play by the French author Victor Hugo, whose text inspired Verdi's unique style with moving arias, stirring choruses and scenes of high drama.

Three men driven by revenge and the love for a woman: The outlaw leader Ernani seeks revenge when he finds out that his father died at the hands of Spanish King Carlo – and even more so when Carlo declares his love for Ernani’s beloved Elvira. She, however, is supposed to marry Silva; a wedding that Ernani wants to prevent. On the other hand, Silva and Ernani share a common wish: revenge on King Carlo. As soon as the latter is elected as the new emperor at Aachen Cathedral, he orders the conspirators to be punished. It is only thanks to Elvira that he pardons them and even agrees to her wedding with Ernani. Then however, a hurt and angry Silva remembers a promise his rival once gave him and ruthlessly spins the wheel of revenge once more.

Stage director Lotte de Beer and stage and costume designer Christof Hetzer work together on the fictional plot with references to the 16th century. The two have already demonstrated their creativity with historic material when they directed Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto in 2017. Once more, they work together with conductor Enrique Mazzola, who showed his passion for Verdi’s music when Rigoletto was staged on the Seebühne.

Stage music in cooperation with Stella Vorarlberg Privathochschule für Musik

History

Premiere of this production: 09 March 1844, Teatro La Fenice, Venice

Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo.

Synopsis

Time: 1519.
Place: Aragon, Aachen, and Zaragoza.

Act 1
Mountains of Aragon

The bandits demand the reason for Ernani's gloom (Chorus: Evviva! Beviam! Beviam! / "To you we drink"; Ernani pensoso! / "Ernani, so gloomy? Why, oh strong one, does care sit on your brow?"). Ernani replies that he loves Elvira (Recitative: "Thanks, dear friends"; Cavatina: Come rugiada al cespite / "As the flower turns to the sun"), who is about to be married against her will to old Gomez de Silva (O tu che l'alma adora). He asks the bandits to abduct her.

In Elvira's chamber

Elvira worries about her upcoming marriage (Scena: "Now sinks the sun and Silva does not return"; Cavatina: Ernani, Ernani involami / "Ernani, Ernani, save me") as servants deliver Silva's wedding presents to her. She reaffirms her love for Ernani (Tutto sprezzo che d'Ernani / "I scorn everything which does not speak to my heart of Ernani"). King Carlos, disguised as a peasant, enters, but Elvira recognizes him and rejects the love that he offers her. As he attempts to use force, she grasps a dagger, but Ernani suddenly arrives and stops Carlos (Trio: "A friend comes quickly to your aid"). Carlos recognizes Ernani as the leader of the bandits. Ernani replies that Carlos robbed him of his lands and forced him into a life of banditry. As he invites Carlos to fight, Silva appears and sees Ernani (Infelice!... e tu credevi... che mai vegg'io! / "Dreadful sight"; Silva's cavatina: "Unhappy man! You thought this lovely...was yours").

Ernani offers to fight them both when Riccardo approaches and recognises the king. Silva is horrified and apologizes to the king, while Ernani whispers to Elvira to prepare to flee.

Act 2

A hall in Silva's palace

Ernani enters disguised as a pilgrim. He asks for shelter, which Silva grants him, and then learns from Silva that he is about to marry Elvira, who believes Ernani to be dead. Ernani reveals his true identity to Elvira and she tells him that she plans to kill herself at the altar (Duet: Ah, morir potessi adesso / "Ah, if I could die now"). Silva walks in at that moment, discovers the pair, but agrees to keep his word to Ernani and protect him from the king, for which Ernani will owe him a perpetual debt. (Trio: No, vendetta più tremenda / "No, I want to keep a greater revenge"). Carlos arrives and wishes to know why the castle is barred. Silva refuses to surrender Ernani (Carlos' aria: Lo vedremo, veglio audace / "We shall see, you bold old man") and Don Carlos's men cannot find Ernani's hiding place. Silva keeps his word, even when the king secures Elvira as a hostage. Silva releases Ernani, and then challenges him to a duel. Ernani refuses to fight, but unites with Silva in his plans to free Elvira from the king. Ernani swears to appear at the summons of Silva, wherever he may be at that time (Odi il voto o grande Iddio / "Oh God, hear the vow"),

[Added for Parma, 26 December 1844: "at Rossini's request, Verdi wrote a grand aria for the tenor Nicola Ivanoff". Ernani gathers his men to him. His aria of vengeance: Sprezzo la vita né più m'alletta / "Life means nothing to me, only hope of vengeance" concludes the act].

Act 3
In the burial vault of Charles the Great at Aachen

Carlos visits the grave of the emperor Charlemagne (Carlo Magno), whose successor, the new Holy Roman Emperor, is being elected by delegates from the relevant countries. Carlos resolves to change his life if he is crowned (Cavatina: Oh, de' verd'anni miei/ "Oh, the dreams and deceits of my youth"). Hiding behind the vault, he overhears a gathering of conspirators including Silva and Ernani. Ernani swears to murder Carlos. The conspiracy is foiled when Carlos's attendants enter and surprise the conspirators. The king commands that all the traitorous noblemen be executed. Ernani steps forward, declaring that thus he must die too; he is not the bandit Ernani, but Don Juan of Aragon, whose lands were taken from him. Elvira, who had been brought to Carlos as his intended empress, begs mercy for her lover, and Carlos, whose mood has changed, forgives them both and places Elvira's hand in that of Ernani.

Act 4
Ernani's Castle

Elvira and Ernani have just been married, when, in consternation, Ernani hears a bugle call. Silva arrives and silently hands Ernani a dagger. Ernani asks for time to "sip from the cup of love" (Ascolta, ascolta un detto ancor/ "Listen, just one word...") but, cursed by Silva as a coward, Ernani keeps his oath and stabs himself in the heart (Trio with Silva: È vano, o donna, il piangere, è vano / "Your weeping is in vain, woman"). He dies in Elvira's arms, telling her to live.

Venue Info

Bregenz Festspielhaus - Bregenz
Platz der Wr. Symphoniker

The Bregenz Festspielhaus is an event center in Bregenz and was opened in July 1980. It is the venue for the Bregenz Festival and the venue for conferences, congresses, and events. The operator of the Congress culture Bregenz GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state capital Bregenz is.

In 1990, architectural competition for an extension of the building was announced, which was won by the architects Helmut Dietrich and Much Untertrifaller, based in Bregenz and Vienna, with their architectural office of the same name, Dietrich/Untertrifaller. The concept envisaged a two-stage expansion of the existing building.

The first part of the extension was built in 1996/1997, including the workshop stage with side stage, lake studio, lake foyer, central kitchen, and the new administrative part of the house.

In 2005/2006, the existing building from 1980 was completely renovated and expanded by 10,000 cubic meters. The "Platz der Wiener Symphoniker" in front of the Festival and Congress Hall was redesigned as part of an "Art and Construction" project.

The approximately 7-meter high sculpture "Ready Maid" was created by Gottfried Bechtold. According to the renowned Vorarlberg artist, the inverted tree made of polished bronze is a striding tree woman, an antipode, a diametrically opposed art object to the performances. The sculpture stands in a slight depression, which, depending on the amount of precipitation, turns into a water-based paint and mirror surface up to 15 centimeters deep.

Cerith Wyn Evans created an installation of white neon light that reads "299,792,458 m/s" - the speed of light. The installation was mounted on the Festspielhaus and can be perceived as a light object itself, as a reflection in window panes and in the water, as shadows, etc.
The multifunctional orientation of the Festspielhaus now enables the implementation of a wide variety of event types. Conferences and congresses, cultural events, entertainment as well as company events, and social events form the portfolio of the house. In 2009 the Festspielhaus in Bregenz was voted one of the best event centers of its size in Europe by the European Association of Event Centers (EVVC) and received the corresponding award "Best Center 2009". In 2013, the Bregenz Festival Hall again received an award from the EVVC, this time in cooperation with the German Convention Bureau, namely the “Meeting Experts Green Award” in the “Sustainable Event Center” category.

In addition to the annual Bregenz Festival, performances of the Bregenz Spring Dance Festival, the Bregenz master concerts, concerts of the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, and shows and concerts of all genres take place in the Festspielhaus.

At the Seebühne Stars like Falco, Peter Gabriel, Supertramp, Herbert Grönemeyer, Elton John, Udo Jürgens, Xavier Naidoo and Cro gave concerts. In 2008, film recordings of James Bond 007: a Quantum consolation were recorded there.