Hernani

Overview

Hernani, ou l'Honneur castillan is a verse drama in five acts by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), first performed at the Comédie-Française on 25 February 1830. Set in sixteenth-century Spain, it tells of the outlaw Hernani, the old duke Ruy Gomez de Silva and Doña Sol, who loves Hernani and is betrothed to the duke; it ends with the lovers' suicide at the sound of the horn Hernani once promised to answer. Its open breach of the classical unities and of the formal rules of alexandrine verse made the first nights a pitched battle between Romantic partisans and classicists, the "bataille d'Hernani", which became the founding legend of French Romantic theatre (Wikipedia, "Hernani"). Verdi's opera Ernani (1844) is based on it, which is why Marie once writes of a chorus "d'Ernani" (049.0109).

Marie and this work

• February 1874, Nice. Marie notes on 4 February that on Saturday there is "Hernani par la Vigier" (016.0107). On 7 February she writes "Ce soir nous avons Hernani que j'attendais tant" (016.0153); on 11 February she recalls the blue dress she wore "à la représentation d'Hernani" (016.0215), and on 15 February the Cercle de la Méditerranée concert is full "pas autant que le soir d'Hernani" (016.0269). The performer is the Vicomtesse Vigier, the former opera star Sophie Cruvelli; the venue is evidently the Cercle de la Méditerranée, which is inferred from 016.0269 and not stated outright.
• 25 February 1880, Paris. The fiftieth anniversary of the first performance was marked at the Comédie-Française, with Sarah Bernhardt reciting François Coppée's poem La Bataille d'Hernani before a bust of Hugo (Coppée's printed text, Lemerre 1880; Wien Museum print from Le Monde illustré). Marie splits her evening between the Opéra and the Théâtre-Français (087.0539).
• 22 April 1880. Saint-Amand recites scenes of Hernani and Ruy Blas at her studio (087.0893).
• 25 October 1880. Marie evokes the last act "lorsque Doña Sol supplie le vieillard" (090.0171).
• 16 September 1881, Biarritz. Writing after seeing Sarah Bernhardt on stage again, she lists the pieces in which she has seen her: "Le sphynx", "Hernani" and "L'étrangère", four viewings in all (093.0080; the source footnote lists Hernani among Bernhardt's key works). The Hernani performance is therefore earlier than September 1881 and its date is not given there.

Sources

• Victor Hugo, Hernani (1830), text on Wikisource.
• Wikipedia, "Hernani".
• François Coppée, La Bataille d'Hernani, Lemerre, 1880 (Internet Archive, "labatailledherna00copp").
• Wien Museum, print "Le cinquantenaire d'Hernani à la Comédie-Française", object 390527.