Opera reviews: Il Trovatore and The Glory of Venice

4 / 5 stars
Verdi’s Il Trovatore

THE Royal Opera’s new production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore received what are politely called mixed reviews when first staged last summer.

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The director updated the medieval Spanish drama by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez to a war zone

German director David Bosch, in his Royal Opera debut, updated the medieval Spanish drama by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez to a contemporary war zone.   

Designer Patrick Bannwart provided a surrealistic setting of iridescent white flowers and ominous ravens.  However, the design team has taken note of some of the criticisms, and those pesky moths flitting around the video backdrop have been zapped and replaced by a dark sky of static stars.

Il Trovatore is in any case acknowledged to be a nightmare to stage.  In this middle period opera, Verdi took a step back from the taut reality of his previous work Rigoletto.  Scenes in Il Trovatore are apt to end in cliffhangers as unarmed protagonists face army tanks or are drenched with petrol and about to be set  on fire, only to be saved by the curtain.     

Verdi and his librettist, the revered but old-fashioned Salvadore Cammarano, corresponded by letters that frequently crossed in the Italian post from Parma to Naples and back.  It is not surprising that the plot got a bit disjointed on the way. 

The tale hinges on a two generation vendetta between a Spanish aristocratic family and a gypsy clan.  A gypsy accused of putting a spell on a baby is burnt at the stake as a witch, the back story recounted in grisly detail by her daughter Azucena.  In a frenzied attempt to avenge her mother Azucena throws her own baby on to the fire by mistake.  

Unknown to anyone else, the boy she brings up as her son is actually the lost brother of the Count di Luna.   The vendetta is renewed when Luna’s intended bride Leonora falls in love with the troubadour Manrico. Battles, abduction, murder and suicide lead to Azucena’s final revenge against the Count. 

The melodramatic story inspired some of Verdi’s greatest arias, most of which have become favourite concert pieces, such as Manrico's “Di quella pira” (From the burning pyre),  and the rousing Anvil Chorus of the gypsies, here sung minus the anvils by what looks like a travelling circus.   

Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili is a thrilling Azucena, and the temperature rises a notch when she emerges with witchy black hair from her caravan, clutching a totemistic doll.  Italian soprano Maria Agresta is touching as Leonora, unwittingly involved in a case of sibling rivalry, and Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey relishes the villain’s role as Count di Luna.  

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Uzbek tenor Najmiddin Mavlyanov is a rather wooden Manrico, possibly due to the disadvantage of being a late replacement for Robert Alagna.  Hungarian bass Gabor Bretz shines in the small role of Ferrando, Captain in Luna’s army. 

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera under Richard Farnes, former Music Director of Opera North, gives an impassioned account of the score.  

After 16 December, the second cast takes over till 9 February. 

With Lianna Haroutounian as Leonora and Gregory Kunde as Manrico, it should be worth revisiting - especially as Anita Rachvelishvili’s Azucena will once again weave her spell.   

The performance on Tuesday 31 January will be relayed live to cinemas worldwide.  www.roh.org.uk/productions/il-trovatore-by-david-bosch.

The Academy of Ancient Music’s chamber concert The Glory of Venice was an evening of surprises, both for unusual baroque instruments such as the honking sounds of a bass dulcian,  forerunner of the bassoon, and for the discovery of a little known 17th century Venetian composer, Dario Castello.

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Under music director Richard Egarr, the seven piece band and two sopranos brought us a baroque gem of an evening.   Venice, of course, means Claudio Monteverdi, and his sacred cantatas composed as music director for the Basilica of St Mark’s alternated with Castello’s instrumental sonatas.

Sopranos Carolyn Sampson and Rowan Pierce complemented each other sublimely in the duets, conveying the pure joy of Monteverdi’s sacred music.   The younger composer Castello’s sonatas, named “Stil Moderno” (modern style), were regarded as avant-garde by Venetian audiences.   In the fourth Sonata, violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk brought out echoes of an Irish jig.  

The ninth Sonata gave Benny Aghassi the chance to plumb the depths of the dulcian.

The series of baroque concerts at Milton Court Concert Hall and West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge continues next year, with a final concert of Monteverdi’s Vespers at the Barbican Hall on 23 June. Further information www.barbican.org.uk 

VERDICT: 4/5

Verdi’s Il Trovatore Royal Opera House, London WC2 (Tickets:  020 7340 4000/roh.org.uk ; £9-£190)

The Glory of Venice Academy of Ancient Music/Egarr Milton Court Concert Hall, London EC2 (One night only)

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