SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Verdi, Il Trovatore: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Carlo Rizzi (conductor). Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 13.4.2009 (CC)

Manrico         -        Roberto Alagna
Leonora         -        Sondra Radvanovsky
Azucena        -        Małgorzata Walewska
Count di Luna -        Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Ferrando        -        Mikhail Petrenko
Ines              -        Monika-Evelin Liv
Old Gypsy      -        Jonathan Fisher
John Heath    -        Messenger
Haoyin Xue    -        Ruiz

Leonora (Sondra Radvanovsky) and Luna (Dmitri Hvorostovsky)

The current run of performances at the Royal Opera House forms the third revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Trovatore (originally seen in 2002, then in 2004 and 2007). Every turn of the wheel has brought with it star names, as is Trovatore’s wont: Hvorostovsky and Cura (2002), Fiorenza Cedolins (2004) and Marcello Álvarez in 2007. No exception, 2009 reintroduces Hvorostovsky, setting him against Roberto Alagna. There are also other cast members making first appearnces: Sondra Radvanovsky makes her role debut here as Leonora (she has sung the part already at the met, Los Angeles and Berlin among others); the discovery of the evening, Polish mezzo-soprano Małgoreta Walewska sings Azucena for her own debut; and the Russian bass Mikhail Petrenko, is also in his ROH debut, as Ferrando.

As one might expect from Elijah Moshinsky, the staging is a treat for the senses. Dungeons do indeed look like dungeons, furnaces glow red. Stage area is expertly used. The updating to around the 1850s along with references to Visconti’s Senseo (which itself references Trovatore) works well without, presumably, irritating true traditionalists too much.

Manrico (Roberto Alagna) and Azucena (Małgorzata Walewska)

No surprise either that this first performance of the run was sold out, with a healthy queue for returns in evidence. That it did not all add up to a major event, or did not live up to its on-paper promise, is due to no small extent to the conducting of Carlo Rizzi. Rizzi was in charge back in 2002, so he should have felt at home. Perhaps he was, too much so. The elements of the supernatural, so expertly discussed in Christopher Wintle’s booklet essay, “Fear and Loathing in Ancient Aragon”, were blunted in the opera house itself, to say the least. To ascribe the orchestra’s glossing over of Verdi’s gestures towards the supernatural to Sinopoli-like deconstructive tendencies would be charitable in the extreme. Rizzi is a fine musician, but no more. Tempi were fluent and the accompaniment was sensibly controlled except for a few moments where ensemble slipped noticeably. Exchanges between singers were natural and one experienced the vibrancy of Verdi’s writing. But nowhere was this Trovatore more than the sum of its parts. Trovatore is a great opera – one of the greatest – which here failed to step into its own greatness.

Great singing could have at least saved the day and in the shape of Dmitri Hvorostovsky, this was regularly touched upon. His assumption of the role the Count of Luna was a telling one. He is of a naturally aristocratic bent, anyway, so his stiff stage presence rang true. His voice has as its basis the softest velvet, and yet at no point was he overpowered by the orchestra or by Verdi’s vocal demands. Clad in military garb, his voice belied the imposed strictures of his costume.

Alagna, though, seemed tired. He was clearly pacing himself for the big numbers (resulting in a nice and lusty “Di quella pira”) but too often he scooped up to notes. He spent the first part effectively warming up, and only really came into his own when pitted against Walewska’s superb Azucena in Part 2. His voice seemed properly focussed for the first time here, and yet even here he was upstaged by Walewska, who was significantly more inside her part.

Radvanovsky was not the most subtle of Leonoras. Her “Tacea la notte” was acceptable but not great, and it was only in the final scene of the opera that she really shone (particularly in “D’amor sull’ali rosee”). Better was Walewska’s Azucena, gripping in her “Stride la vampa!”. Although not vocally perfect, her stage presence and musicality seemed equally mesmeric. Vassily Petrenko was an acceptable, dependable Ferrando.

So was there a real star in an opera that should drip with them?. Yes, and it was an unexpected one – the Chorus of the Royal Opera was on resplendent form, lusty, virile and in sumptuous voice when necessary (Anvil Chorus), but also unbearably poignant in the off-stage ‘Miserere’. Like the glue that held the story together, the Chorus was rock solid and supremely confident. Bravo to the chorus master, Renato Balsadonna.

The fact remains though that this Trovatore failed to make its blistering effect, and the reason for that is surely Carlo Rizzi, who firstly failed to ignite his singers and secondly seemed not to think on anything approaching the larger scale.

Colin Clarke

Pictures © Catherine Ashmore

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