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Verdi, Il Trovatore: Soloists, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi. Coro de Ópera de Bilbao. Conductor: Fabrizio Maria Carminati. Palacio Euskalduna de Bilbao. 20. 9.2008. (JMI)

Production from Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

Director: Paul Curran (original) Oscar Cecchi (revival).
Sets and costumes: Kevin Knight.
Lighting: Bruno Poet.

Cast:

Manrico: Francisco Casanova
Leonora: Fiorenza Cedolins
Azucena: Irina Mishura
Conte di Luna: Ambrogio Maestri
Ferrando: Oren Gradus.
Ruiz: Manuel de Diego
Inés: Nuria Orbea.

ABAO (Asociación bilbaina de Amigos de la Ópera) opened its season 57^th opera season with a title from the main repertoire, as it is usual for this association. Il Trovatore has never been particularly successful in Bilbao in the last 20/30 years because casting the necessary four great voices is never an easy task. In fact,  it is only  Sondra Radvanovsky's performance in Bilbao's outing of this title more than six years ago that sticks in the memory.

It has been repeated ad nauseam that Il Trovatore needs the four best singers in the world to succeed. The comment is so well known that I might as well begin with ABAO's quartet.  By no means the world's greatest, they offered a fair guarantee of vocal quality, on paper at least. The end result however  was not what we might have expected. For reasons unclear to me the stage performance of the vocal quartet, with the remarkable exception of Azucena, was worthy of a concert version at best. Either the Stage Director in Bilbao, Oscar Cecchi, had not paid attention to the singers or they had paid very little attention to him.

Francisco Casanova returned to Bilbao to sing  Manrico and he was at his usual level, which is not quite enough to bring the house down. Nothing should be said against his beautiful voice and his outstanding phrasing, but  the problems begin with his short  fiato  and his consequent lack of credibility on stage. As on other occasions, he was at his best in the aria “Ah, si ben mio” while he was much too short of strength in the most expected Pira, which he sang at the lower pitch of course and with only one verse. For the audience, a Trovatore without a brilliant Pira is like a garden without any flowers. Not a sniff here.

On the other hand, Fiorenza Cedolins has always succeeded in Bilbao and there is no question that she is one the most important sopranos around today. This time she did not reach the expected high level of past occasions and after a rather bland first half, she improved much in the last act, and her “Amor su l’alli rose” was  everything that people had looked forward to. Personally, I find  the vocal development of this great soprano,  rather odd. Instead her voice widening over time, it seems to become more and more lyric: she is a great singer, but I am not convinced that she is really a Verdi soprano these days.

Irina Mishura was a convincing Azucena in every sense, and of course the only one of the vocal quartet who really lived the character from beginning to end. She is probably is not at her best in vocal terms now, but she still is  one of the top-flight Azucenas.

Ambrogio Maestri merely skimmed the surface of di Luna. His voice is perfectly suited to all of the demands of the true Verdi baritone, but there is no elegance in his delivery and his singing is never really smooth. He started with great  promise in the Act I trio but his  interpretation of “Il Balen” left much to be desired, with many vocal problems and a coarse  result overall. He improved quite a lot in the second half, but  remained a wooden acto throughout.

American bass Oren Gradus was a good Ferrando with slightly under par  projection, Manuel De Diego was a good Ruiz and Nuria Orbea was  miscast as Inés, a role that lies too low for her.

If in vocal terms this Trovatore was not a huge success, musically it was also one of the flattest performances of this opera I can remember. Fabrizio Maria Carminati can get away with Donizetti, but Verdi is a different thing entirely and he was simply not up to the task. He was simply boring. The Orchestra maintained its mediocre usual level but El Coro de Ópera de Bilbao offered one of their  best performances ever. They were the best thing on the stage.

The production of Paul Curran was directed in Bilbao  by Oscar Cecchi, offering a performance  well within the line of the main tradition. although the action is transferred rather to the XIXth century. The sets consisted of movable walls, which allowed fast changes of scenes, leaving a large flight of  stairs in the center of the stage most of the time, although these too could be  moved to the sides. Most of the  action takes place in the dark, requiring a detailed lighting plot  Cecchi did a good job in directing the chorus but his direction of the principal was virtually non-existent.

As it is usual in Bilbao, the Euskalduna had a full house, There was warm applause for Leonora's aria in the last act and for  Manrico. At the final bows the warmest reception was for Irina Mishura, followed by Cedolins.  Carminati received little  beyond politeness, and that  was probably too much.

José M Irurzun

Pictures © Moreno Esquivel

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