on favour abroad; but the opera
which gave him European fame was 'Ernani' (1844). The story is an
adaptation of Victor Hugo's famous play. Elvira, the chosen bride of Don
Silva, a Spanish grandee, loves Ernani, an exiled nobleman, who has had
to take refuge in brigandage. Silva discovers their attachment, but
being connected with Ernani in a plot against Charles V., he defers his
vengeance for the moment. He yields his claim upon Elvira's affection,
but exacts a promise from his rival, that when he demands it, Ernani
shall be prepared to take his own life. Charles's magnanimity frustrates
the conspiracy, and Silva, defeated alike in love and ambition, claims
the fulfilment of Ernani's oath, despite the prayers of Elvira, who is
condemned to see her lover stab himself in her presence. Hugo's
melodrama suited Verdi's blood-and-thunder style exactly. 'Ernani' is
crude and sensational, but its rough vigour never descends to weakness,
though it often comes dangerously near to vulgarity. 'Ernani' is the
opera most typical of Verdi's earliest period. With all its blemishes,
it is easy to see how its masculine vigour and energy must have
captivated the audiences of the day. But there were political as well as
musical reasons for the instantaneous success of Verdi's early operas.
Italy in the forties was a seething mass of sedition. Verdi's strenuous
melodies, often allied to words in which the passionate patriotism of
his countrymen contrived to read a political sentiment, struck like a
trumpet-call upon the ears of men already ripe for revolt against the
hated Austrian rule. Such strains as the famous 'O mia patria, si bella
e perduta' in 'Nabucodonosor' proclaimed Verdi the Tyrtaeus of awakened
Italy.

'Ernani' was followed by a series of works which, for the sake of
Verdi's reputation, it is better to pass over as briefly as possible.
His success provided him with more engagements than he could
conscientiously fulfil, and the quality of his work suffered in
consequence. There are some fine scenes in 'I Due Foscari' (1844), but
it has little of the vigour of 'Ernani.' 'Giovanna d'Arco' (1845),
'Alzira' (1845), and 'Attila' (1846), were almost total failures. In
'Macbeth' (1847), however, Verdi seems to have been inspired by his
subject, and wrote better music than he had yet given to the world. The
libretto is a miserable perversion of Shakespeare, and for that reason
the opera has never succeeded in England, but in countries