“That ultra-classical product of Romanticism, the grandiose Italian opera in which the executive art consists in a splendid display of personal heroics, and the drama arises out of the simplest and most universal stimulants to them.” Thus GB Shaw on Ernani. It is an injunction to take Verdi’s early opera seriously and to be receptive to what it has to offer.

This Parma production, I should say, was planned and rehearsed in that spirit. The fine Coronation scene, in particular, achieves its due status as a moving and dignified climax. One trouble is that there is still the fourth act to come, with Ernani’s death having a rather stagey formality where it needs the emotional warmth of (say) the King’s in Un ballo in maschera. And, in performance, there is what Shaw fails to mention, the sound and quality of the singing voices.

Well, be it said that Marco Berti, whose name may not suggest instant joy when seen in a cast-list, gives here the best performance I (at least) have heard from him. His opening scene is not encouraging, but progressively throughout the opera one comes to value certain qualities, especially by comparison with his male colleagues. He is, for instance, more even in “line” than Carlo Guelfi and firmer in tone than Giacomo Prestia. As the honourable and implacable old Silva, Prestia has the advantages of a tall patrician figure and a sonorous, genuinely bass voice. But his production is no longer (if it ever was) steady. Nor is Guelfi’s, and to that is added a gross fault of style in the persistent interpolation of aspirates. Susan Neves, a substantial Elvira, is innocent of these faults and gives generally an able and sympathetic performance.

Sets and costumes look well, or would do if the lighting were not so dark. Chorus and orchestra are up to standard, though both are unimaginatively directed. Ernani’s brigands are grimly regimented, as are Maestro Allemandi’s tempi.