the most careful attention to what I see and hear. I've been able to put my finger on so many works which wouldn't have failed if the pieces had been better laid out, the effects better calculated, the musical forms clearer, etc....in a word, if either the composer or the poet had been more experienced. In effect, Verdi is taking control over all aspects of the piece, which includes the condensation of the sprawling play into his four acts. (The first two acts of Hugo's play become act 1 of the opera). Rather than allow the librettist a free hand in composing his verses, "this would have perpetuated in a diminished form the word-music division that Verdi precisely wanted to get away from. The composer's desire to take charge of every aspect of an opera implied that he had the power to decide what weight to give the text and the music, respectively, depending upon the "moment" of the action. Performance history 19th century Budden sums up the opening night success of Ernani: nothing "prevented [the opera] from being a tremendous success. With it, Verdi's fame took a new leap which carried it at once across the boundaries of Italy. For better or worse, he was now a world composer [.....and] wherever there was an Italian opera house, Ernani arrived sooner or later." However, it was not all smooth sailing: due to Hugo's opposition, the first performances in Paris at the Théâtre des Italiens two years later required a change of title - to Il Proscritto - and a change of characters' names: "The practice was followed in other cities where the names Victor Hugo and Hernani smacked of revolution." In Palermo in 1845 it became Elvira d'Aragona and in Messina in 1847 the title became Il proscritto ossia Il corsaro di Venezia. Overall, Ernani was staged in one form or another up to the mid-1850s, with "32 theatres [giving] the work in 1844, 60 in 1845, and at least 65 in 1846, not including revivals in houses that had already presented it." The United Kingdom premiere, the first of Verdi's operas to be translated into English, took place at Her Majesty's Theatre in London on 8 March 1845 followed on 13 April 1847 by its US premiere in New York. 20th century and beyond Ernani appeared on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera as early as 1903 and has