Long on confrontation and chivalric vows, short on credible characterisation, Verdi’s fifth opera Ernani was one of the composer’s greatest early successes, but these days requires a firm directorial hand and a gutsy quartet of lead singers to keep its wheels turning at speed. Fortunately that’s by and large what Buxton international festival has assembled for its new production: a swift-paced and intelligible, if still not wholly plausible, Ernani in which sterling singing is allowed to take pride of place.
Set in 16th-century Spain, but shifted to a present-day oligarchy by director Jamie Manton, the opera turns largely on questions of duty and loyalty, and on its title character’s apparent death wish. In love with Elvira and bent on revenge against the king, the aristocrat turned bandit hurtles into perilous encounters with both, and offers several times to forfeit his own life, until a pledge made in extremis to Elvira’s uncle – a rival for her hand – obliges him to commit suicide just as he’s found happiness.
Quite how successfully these machinations translate to Manton and designer Sami Fendall’s world of machine guns and tailored suits is arguable, but they’re at least clearly delineated, and staged with enough gravity to be taken seriously on their own terms. Only Corina Würsch’s kooky chorus choreography, seemingly sprung from a Soviet propaganda poster, hints at an eyebrow being raised behind the scenes.
Crucially, Manton’s production gives its singers space to shine, and every one of them takes up the invitation. Nadine Benjamin’s Elvira, at the nexus of three men’s romantic attentions and power dynamics, is an understandably diffuse figure, but her singing, equal parts steel and silver, is laser-focused, and well-matched to each of the three male voices with whom she interacts. Roman Arndt’s Ernani has dash and vocal glamour in spades, his tone gaining in vibrancy throughout, while baritone André Heyboer cuts a Scarpia-like figure as the conflicted king, Don Carlo: his granite-hewn “O sommo Carlo” is especially striking. But with the great Verdi bass Alastair Miles on the bill, it’s little surprise that his Silva takes top honours: a masterclass in Italianate legato, diction and patrician nefariousness which earns him the evening’s loudest cheers alongside the inevitable pantomime boos.
Bolstered by members of this year’s Young Artist Programme, the BIF Chorus skilfully negotiates Verdi’s many set-piece ensembles, with choristers Jane Burnell, Theo Perry, and Emyr Lloyd Jones also impressing in smaller solo roles. The Orchestra of Opera North, meanwhile, makes a welcome return to Buxton – its first visit in 30 years – playing with polish and concision under the festival’s artistic director Adrian Kelly. An implausible piece; but a persuasive account of it.