Editing Ernani (section)

==Music==
Noting that the dramatic structure of this opera "brought about a fresh consideration of the fixed forms of Italian opera, in particular an expansion and enrichment of the solo aria and duet together with a more flexible approach to the musical sequences that bind together lyrical pieces", Roger Parker continues by stating that of greatest importance was "Verdi's gathering sense of musical drama's larger rhetoric, his increasing control over the dynamics of entire acts rather than merely of entire numbers. In this respect, the third act of ''Ernani'' sets up an imposing standard of coherence, one that is rarely equalled until the operas of the early 1850s."<ref>Parker (1998), pp. 72–73</ref>

However, it is writer Gabriele Baldini (whose specialization was in English literature) who in 1980 points to one of the most significant aspects of ''Ernani'''s dramatic and musical structure, the concept of male vocal archetypes, something which is echoed in Budden's 1984 chapter on this opera.<ref>Budden (1984), p. 147</ref> Baldini writes of the musical conflicts inherent in the drama as a result of the use of certain voice types:

<blockquote>A youthful, passionate female voice is besieged by three male voices, each of whom establishes a specific relationship with her. The siege is fruitless. The male voices, or rather registers, meet with various fates, and each is granted a relationship with the woman, although on different levels. This relationship varies in intensity of passion according to the distance between the soprano register and the particular male voice.<ref name="BALD">Baldini (1980), p. 74</ref></blockquote>

Therefore, it is the lowest voice [the bass, de Silva], which is "farthest away, and thus his relationship is the coldest and most retrained".<ref name="BALD"/> The baritone [the King, Don Carlo] "manages to draw somewhat closer, although indirectly and ambiguously",<ref name="BALD"/> but Baldini continues by noting that it the highest male voice [the tenor, Ernani] who "gets near a relationship which if not complete ... is at least reciprocated for long periods".<ref name="BALD"/>

Finally, while Baldini agrees with Parker that it is act 3 of ''Ernani'' which is the strongest – "in my opinion it marks the first occasion on which Verdi enclosed within a fairly extended musical space (about twenty five minutes) a perfect structural unit"<ref>Baldini (1980), p. 83</ref> – he also echoes Budden and De Van in noting the importance of the opening horn motif and references to the horn which recur throughout the opera and which ends with the final horn call, the fatal summons to Ernani by de Silva.