Three men vie for the love of Elvira: her lover Ernani, Don Carlo, the King of Spain, and Silva, Elvira's wealthy guardian to whom she is betrothed. When Carlo is to be elected as Emperor in Aachen, Silva and Ernani are also among the conspirators. However, the assassination attempt fails, Carlo is elected Emperor Charles V, and wants to punish the conspirators. At Elvira's request, however, he pardons both and ultimately accepts the love between her and Ernani. But the happy ending does not last long, as Silva seeks revenge on Ernani... With ERNANI, Verdi created a gripping drama of power, love, and jealousy based on Victor Hugo's model, using a historical event as the occasion: the coronation of Charles V as Emperor in Aachen Cathedral in 1520. For Verdi, the shocking impact of the plot took precedence over its dramaturgical credibility. The world premiere of ERNANI on 9 March 1844 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice was an immediate triumph for Verdi. After the successes of NABUCCO and I LOMBARDI, this was to be Verdi's definitive breakthrough as a composer. The work quickly spread across Italian stages and was soon performed in London, Paris and Berlin. In the 19th century, ERNANI was one of the most frequently performed operas by Giuseppe Verdi. While the work is still largely bound to convention in its formal structure, the music possesses a previously unheard dramatic force - with choruses that already foreshadow IL TROVATORE, with finely crafted ensembles, with arias full of exceptional cantabile quality, and with gripping, dramatic finales. The conspirators’ chorus from Act III, incidentally, became - even more than “Va pensiero” - the leitmotif of the Italian “Risorgimento”, the national unification movement of Italy. This early work of Verdi, rarely performed today, is now experiencing a concert performance in Cologne under the baton of Giuliano Carella.