IL TROVATORE
Opera Australia
Joan Sutherland Theatre, Opera House
January 29
VERDI was always fascinated with the way deep ties of blood endure amid . It is as though he had carefully studied Freud and the kinship diagrams of structural anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. In Trovatore, brotherly rivalry is elevated to clashes between lovers and armies, while the hero risks his soldiers to save his lover, and then risks them all again to save his mother.
Intensity … Arnold Rawls and Milijana Nikolic.Credit: Branco Gaica.
Opera Australia's production moves the setting the 15th century to the 20th century Spanish Civil War with violence dividing class, families and lovers. This revival has some elements that are not yet fully reheated with a lame fight scene at the end of Act 1, and onstage chemistry that was at times less than incendiary.
Yet the concept is valid, moving away from the improbabilities of gypsy , embodied in the borderline derangement of Azucena, towards the grim realities of modern conflict and genocide. There were striking moments of design. A wall of icons becomes a nun's chorus, providing a spiritual glow amid the rubble.
As Leonora, Daria Masiero sang with a broad vibrato which took an aria or two to settle, but which brought evenness and tonal depth throughout her range with ample strength for the climactic moments of the third and fourth acts.
Tenor Arnold Rawls, as the revolutionary Manrico, has a lean sound which found its best moments in the final duos with lover and daughter. By contrast, baritone Michael Honeyman sang the Count Luna with a thick and heavy tone that still achieved forcefulness in his moments of seething jealousy.
Dramatically, the strongest presence was Milijana Nikolic as the obsessed gypsy Azucena. With scenes of ethnic cleansing behind, she sang Stride la vampa, her confessional aria of fiery brooding, with a passionate voice of searing intensity. Richard Anderson in the role of the cleric Ferrando, who among other things introduces us (partly) to the baby-swapping plot in the opening aria, sang with neat narrative clarity and precision.
Conductor Arvo Volmer's direction was firm and even. The tonal from the pit, particularly clarinet, were mellow and expressive, and the chorus sang with balanced and disciplined strength.