Opera review: Il Trovatore (2009)
Giuseppe Verdi (1853)
The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD (Summer Encore)
In Italian with English subtitles
Someone in this production - I don't recall if it was one of the cast members or the host Renée Fleming - described this opera as "crazy," and I wholeheartedly second that description. Unlike Un Ballo in Maschera, the plot and overall tone of Il Trovatore embrace operatic drama completely, without regard for subtlety or psychology. There's Count di Luna (Dmitri Hvorostovsky), who is supposed to be searching for Azucena (Dolora Zajick), the woman who purportedly killed Di Luna's brother when he was a boy. Di Luna, however, spends more time brooding over his obsession with Leonora (Sondra Radvanovsky), a young woman who has already fallen hard for the Troubadour (poet-musician), Manrico (Marcelo Álvarez). If that were not enough, Di Luna and Manrico are also political enemies, literally at war with each other in any case. Things can only go downhill from there, and they do . . .
Having immensely enjoyed Un Ballo (2012), which featured the same lead trio, I guess my expectations were pretty high - overall, Il Trovatore was not a disappointment, but it was not quite as good. This was probably due to a combination of production fails (see below) and just the opera itself, which seems overrated. It gets four stars, because there is still plenty for opera enthusiasts to like about it.
The one thing that blew me away was Álvarez as Manrico. Now, he was good in Un Ballo, but here he was nothing short of EPIC. His performance, as what I might call a cookie-cutter character, brought credulity and personality to the role in an energetic, heavily emotional way - it was just gorgeous (and he looked pretty great, too). My favorite part of the entire show was his off-stage troubadour singing, absolutely lovely and compelling. Interesting fact about Álvarez: he did not begin singing opera until about 30 years old. Maybe that has something to do with the passionate yet down-to-earth vibe of his singing style.
Though the tenor stole the show, Hvorostovsky was great as always, too. His Di Luna was convincingly creepy and actually loathsome to watch, even for a fan. You don't really get to see all the dimensions of his acting, as you can in Un Ballo; that said, his role seemed relatively too small (like watching How the West Was Won - so much stage presence in such little screentime just feels wrong). It was a big shame since his singing was awesome.
I also liked Radvanovsky better in Un Ballo, because I think the character fit her better than Leonora. Maybe it was the director's idea, but her acting as Leonora, with a lot of random smiling at serious moments, was very distracting. As for her singing - personally, I don't care for her vibrato, though she sings with a lot of emotion and makes the pianissimos very effective.
For us opera newbs, you just can't go wrong with Verdi. There's the famous parts you may have heard before, like the Anvil Chorus and Di quella pira. But Il Trovatore is chock-full of beautiful lesser-known arias such as Di Luna's Il balen del suo sorris and the aforementioned "troubadour singing," Deserto sulla terra (see the clip above). The story is not devoid of excitement, and the music is accessible from start to finish. It lacks a certain depth I like to see in an opera, but if you want to see a traditional, "typical" opera with plenty of great music, Il Trovatore is not a bad choice. This production in particular maintains a historical setting, which, while not the original (15th century), still makes for a nice costume opera.
Production fails - there were four that stood out to me. There was Leonora's first costume, which looked on the verge of a "wardrobe malfunction" at any moment; this was particularly unfortunate, since the rest of the costumes in the show were really good. The second problem was some rather silly camera angles, which were probably meant to be cinematic but came across unintentionally funny. Third, one of the recurrent parts of the sets was a gigantic crucifix in the background, which, though not necessarily irreverent, appeared to have no connection to the story (in itself not particularly religious). Finally, somebody thought it was a good idea to add prostitute extras to the scene of Or co' dadi ma fra poco (soldiers' chorus), with really distasteful choreography (albeit everyone was clothed). It didn't add anything to the song; it was just irrelevant to the lyrics and awkwardly gratuitous.
As for the movie theater experience - well, what can I say? The audience was a little bigger this time, but like before, I was the only person there under the age of 35-40, and most were elderly couples. THERE WAS SO MUCH CHATTING FROM THE AUDIENCE. Maybe next time I will sit in the back. They did clap at the end, though, which was a nice touch. I like to see people enjoying classical music!
Giuseppe Verdi (1853)
The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD (Summer Encore)
In Italian with English subtitles
Someone in this production - I don't recall if it was one of the cast members or the host Renée Fleming - described this opera as "crazy," and I wholeheartedly second that description. Unlike Un Ballo in Maschera, the plot and overall tone of Il Trovatore embrace operatic drama completely, without regard for subtlety or psychology. There's Count di Luna (Dmitri Hvorostovsky), who is supposed to be searching for Azucena (Dolora Zajick), the woman who purportedly killed Di Luna's brother when he was a boy. Di Luna, however, spends more time brooding over his obsession with Leonora (Sondra Radvanovsky), a young woman who has already fallen hard for the Troubadour (poet-musician), Manrico (Marcelo Álvarez). If that were not enough, Di Luna and Manrico are also political enemies, literally at war with each other in any case. Things can only go downhill from there, and they do . . .
Having immensely enjoyed Un Ballo (2012), which featured the same lead trio, I guess my expectations were pretty high - overall, Il Trovatore was not a disappointment, but it was not quite as good. This was probably due to a combination of production fails (see below) and just the opera itself, which seems overrated. It gets four stars, because there is still plenty for opera enthusiasts to like about it.
The one thing that blew me away was Álvarez as Manrico. Now, he was good in Un Ballo, but here he was nothing short of EPIC. His performance, as what I might call a cookie-cutter character, brought credulity and personality to the role in an energetic, heavily emotional way - it was just gorgeous (and he looked pretty great, too). My favorite part of the entire show was his off-stage troubadour singing, absolutely lovely and compelling. Interesting fact about Álvarez: he did not begin singing opera until about 30 years old. Maybe that has something to do with the passionate yet down-to-earth vibe of his singing style.
Though the tenor stole the show, Hvorostovsky was great as always, too. His Di Luna was convincingly creepy and actually loathsome to watch, even for a fan. You don't really get to see all the dimensions of his acting, as you can in Un Ballo; that said, his role seemed relatively too small (like watching How the West Was Won - so much stage presence in such little screentime just feels wrong). It was a big shame since his singing was awesome.
I also liked Radvanovsky better in Un Ballo, because I think the character fit her better than Leonora. Maybe it was the director's idea, but her acting as Leonora, with a lot of random smiling at serious moments, was very distracting. As for her singing - personally, I don't care for her vibrato, though she sings with a lot of emotion and makes the pianissimos very effective.
For us opera newbs, you just can't go wrong with Verdi. There's the famous parts you may have heard before, like the Anvil Chorus and Di quella pira. But Il Trovatore is chock-full of beautiful lesser-known arias such as Di Luna's Il balen del suo sorris and the aforementioned "troubadour singing," Deserto sulla terra (see the clip above). The story is not devoid of excitement, and the music is accessible from start to finish. It lacks a certain depth I like to see in an opera, but if you want to see a traditional, "typical" opera with plenty of great music, Il Trovatore is not a bad choice. This production in particular maintains a historical setting, which, while not the original (15th century), still makes for a nice costume opera.
Production fails - there were four that stood out to me. There was Leonora's first costume, which looked on the verge of a "wardrobe malfunction" at any moment; this was particularly unfortunate, since the rest of the costumes in the show were really good. The second problem was some rather silly camera angles, which were probably meant to be cinematic but came across unintentionally funny. Third, one of the recurrent parts of the sets was a gigantic crucifix in the background, which, though not necessarily irreverent, appeared to have no connection to the story (in itself not particularly religious). Finally, somebody thought it was a good idea to add prostitute extras to the scene of Or co' dadi ma fra poco (soldiers' chorus), with really distasteful choreography (albeit everyone was clothed). It didn't add anything to the song; it was just irrelevant to the lyrics and awkwardly gratuitous.
As for the movie theater experience - well, what can I say? The audience was a little bigger this time, but like before, I was the only person there under the age of 35-40, and most were elderly couples. THERE WAS SO MUCH CHATTING FROM THE AUDIENCE. Maybe next time I will sit in the back. They did clap at the end, though, which was a nice touch. I like to see people enjoying classical music!
