Ernani

Ernani..................Marcello Giordani
Elvira..................Sondra Radvanovsky
Don Carlo...............Thomas Hampson
Don Ruy Gomez de Silva..Ferruccio Furlanetto
Giovanna................Wendy White
Don Riccardo............Jeremy Little
Jago....................Keith Miller

Conductor...............Roberto Abbado

The bad Verdi curse we always have in San Francisco seems not to have spread to the Metropolitan Opera. The cast for Ernani was fabulous. I liked Ferruccio Furlanetto every bit as much as I did in Los Angeles. He's a marvelous singer. Thomas Hampson played the Sherrill Milnes role, and the contrast between the two baritones could not be greater. Hampson made Don Carlo seem a pretty nice guy.

I felt a certain amount of concern for Marcello Giordani. He sang beautifully, but doesn't really have Pavarotti's penetrating tone to shoot his voice over the heavy Verdi orchestration. This was my first time to see him live, and I wondered that he might be overdoing things.

I was happiest to see Sondra Radvanovsky again. I am a fan. Her role here is especially difficult. She has a couple of not too difficult arias, but as the sole solo female she must provide the top for every ensemble, something she does with ease. She has squillo to burn. She should be able to keep up this wonderful work in Verdi for many years since she never needs to push even a little bit. We should all be so lucky. Her tenor partner should be so lucky.

Such a high class ensemble cast could only happen in New York or Vienna.

The plot of Ernani is pretty ridiculous. It concerns one girl and three suitors: an old duke of something or other (Furlanetto), the king of Spain (Hampson) and an outlaw (Giordani). Being a sensible girl, she naturally picks the outlaw. Just as we are about to have a happy ending, the tenor kills himself. Bah!