From Oberto to Ernani

Abstract for his first opera verdi characteristically chose a subject out of the common run. The provenance of Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio has never been established; nor can we be sure how much of it was carried over from Rocester. The hero is an outraged father who returns to the land of which he has been dispossessed to find his daughter, Leonora, seduced and abandoned by the usurper, Riccardo. Together they present themselves to Cuniza, the bride-to-be; then having enlisted her sympathy they confront Riccardo in the presence of his followers (the usual concertato-finale). The wedding is broken off; but this does not prevent Oberto from challenging Riccardo to a duel and being killed by him. Riccardo, remorseful, goes into exile bequeathing his possessions to Leonora, who concludes the opera with the prima donna’s traditional ‘rondò-finale’ of grief and delirium.