Verdi Il trovatore:  Soloists / Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera / Nicola Luisotti (conductor). Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. 30.01.07 (ED)

 

Count di Luna: Anthony Michaels-Moore
Leonora: Catherine Naglestad
Azucena: Stephanie Blythe
Manrico: Marcelo Álvarez
Ferrando: Raymond Aceto
Ines: Kishani Jayasinghe +
Ruiz: Haoyin Xue +

+ Jette Parker Young Artist

 

Conductor: Nicola Luisotti

Director: Elijah Moshinsky
Set Designs: Dante Ferretti
Costume Designs: Anne Tilby
Lighting: Mike Gunning
Fight Arranger: William Hobbs

Co-production with Teatro Real, Madrid

 

 

It is one of opera’s accepted facts that rarely does great music go hand in hand with a great libretto. Indeed, great stage drama can more often be created because of the music than the plot or sung text. Il Trovatore  as an entity, is one such case in point; the plot is of near senseless revenge, yet some of opera’s greatest set pieces lie within Verdi’s score.

 

Elijah Moshinsky’s production is intelligent and atmospheric. It is largely traditional in style, and makes no apologies for the fact, but even when the sets veer from the prescribed scene – the convent in Part II looks more akin to a glass and wrought iron railway station – an awareness of the intended ambiance is maintained. One of the textual leitmotifs is of shade and shadow, something the scenery encourages with effortless ease. The tendency to use raked lighting seems all the more right as the evening progresses, no matter how clearly one might wish to see facial expressions. Directorially, Moshinsky’s approach is often one of ‘less is more’, and the benefits this has in bringing out the inner anguish felt by the quartet of major characters is undeniable.

 

Manrico, the titular troubadour, is stylishly sung by Argentinean tenor Marcelo Álvarez. With a rich and strong tone throughout,  he conveys by turns Manrico the lover, the warrior and the headstrong male who denies his love at the moment of her greatest sacrifice to him. However, the passion in his scenes with Leonora was surpassed in terms of psychology and dramatic value by those he shared with Azucena, his mother.

 

Stephanie Blythe sang her role debut as Azucena the gypsy with such commanding stage and vocal presence that she galvanised all eyes and ears on her every move and utterance. The rich and varied hues of her low-lying mezzo nonetheless allow her to float piano high passages with apparent ease, thus bringing an element of suspended reality into her portrayal of the part. Fittingly, it is Azucena’s last words in the opera that seal the torment of the Conte di Luna, and with them she completed a compelling evening of singing.

 

Catherine Naglestad brought much in terms of dramatic identification to the role of Leonora, her soprano at times sounding a shade vulnerable because of the extent of her dramatic involvement. If there were brief moments of uncertainty or even shortness of breath, it was not totally undeniable that these added something to the reading as a whole. In the main though alongside the more robust voices of Álvarez and Blythe perhaps Naglestad’s efforts sounded more like a brave attempt, which would have been more impressive in a smaller house.

 

British baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore might not be stereotypical casting for an operatic ‘baddy’, but he sought to bring out the slowly gnawing malevolence the Count di Luna is prey to by projecting the character’s driving forces through his acting. Maybe with a slightly more pronounced tone of vengeance in his voice, the character would have been more fully completed, but such desires are small when hearing a Luna so musically sung and not sardonically sneered through gritted teeth for once. 

 

Several of the smaller roles deserve mention too: Raymond Aceto as Ferrando made an assured House debut, whilst Jette Parker Young Artists Kishani Jayasinghe and Haoyin Xie showed ample awareness of Verdian line and promising futures as they progress in their professions.

 

The most compelling reason to beat a swift path to Covent Garden and catch this production was not to be found on stage, but in the pit. I have eagerly awaited this Il trovatore since reviewing a recital disc conducted by Nicola Luisotti (review) in 2005, and was not let down in my expectation even slightly. Luisotti, recently named Music Director of the San Francisco Opera from 2009, has been making house debuts worldwide in recent seasons, mainly conducting core Italian repertoire. He certainly made an auspicious debut here. From what one hears both through the Royal Opera grapevine and actually from their performance, the orchestra think very highly of him. Their playing carried more brio and passion about it than I can recall them producing for any conductor in a number of years. How joyous it was to hear real tonal body from the mid-strings integrated with bass and violin parts, whilst the brass and timpani never held back in making their presence felt. Even the chorus, so often temperamentally half-hearted under Renato Balsadonna’s direction, were unusually enlivened. Add to that the pliancy of Luisotti’s conducting; his feeling for line and the natural dynamism of Verdi’s writing it is no wonder that he is quickly establishing a reputation as a musician of great intelligence. Where urgency was called for it was there, but he was equally unafraid to let a true legato prevail also. The Royal Opera must be eagerly anticipating his conducting of Madama Butterfly barely a month from now – I certainly am. Tony Pappano, who was in the audience, hopefully recognised the quality of Luisotti’s performance. The best way to publicly acknowledge it would be to bring Luisotti back as soon as schedules allow, and often thereafter.  

 

 

 

Evan Dickerson