Your true Verdi fans have a soft spot for the high-minded, gloomily seductive early tragedy Ernani, after a blood-and-thunder play by Victor (Les Misérables) Hugo. Suffice it to say it’s not just any composer who can make a simple offstage call of a horn stop the heart. The elegant Albanian tenor Saimir takes the dashing title role. The powerhouse Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu sings Elvira, a proud Aragonian beauty who staves off crowned suitors with admirable spunk, but to little avail. —Matthew Gurewitsch