Il Trovatore Rerun

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Conductor:  Marco Armiliato
Production:  David McVicar

Leonora:  Anna Netrebko (soprano)
Azucena:  Dolora Zajick (mezzo-soprano)
Manrico:  Yonghoon Lee (tenor)
di Luna:  Dmitri Hvorostovsky (baritone)
Ferrando:  Štefan Kocán (bass)

This is the performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore where Dmitri Hvorostovsky steps forward and is showered with white roses from the orchestra.  Since he originally sang this Met Live in HD performance, he has died.  I cried in the theater today.  Everything is simply wonderful.  It plays again in the evening so be sure to see it.

Il Trovatore from the ROH

Conductor: Richard Farnes
Director: David Bösch

Leonora: Lianna Haroutounian
Manrico, the troubadour: Gregory Kunde
Azucena, his gypsy mother: Anita Rachvelishvili
Count di Luna: Vitaliy Bilyy
Ferrando, his lieutenant:  Alexander Tsymbalyuk

This performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore from the Royal Opera House in London played in my local movie theater.  We were told that when this opera first played in America, it was called The Gypsy's Revenge.

This is my eighth viewing of this opera and my sixth production since I began blogging. Two were Sondra Radvanovsky, two were Anna Netrebko, one was Barbara Frittoli and one was Anja Harteros.  This is what an opera should be.  Here the production focuses on explaining the action.

This is one in a small set of operas I am calling the caravan series:  Il Turco in Italia from Los Angeles, Le Comte Ory from Zurich, Die Meistersinger from Munich and this performance all used a caravan at some point in the action.  In this performance Azucena lives here with her collection of baby dolls.

In this production all of the scenes are staged in the open air instead of the usual giant buildings with no particular identity or purpose.  The count and his army are at war with the gypsies.  He is in love with Leonora who is in love with the troubadour who sings to her from a distance.  If we are in large buildings, we cannot help wondering how a character from one group might casually approach a character from the other group.  If we are in the open air, this is not a problem.

Of this cast Anita Rachvelishvili was the most outstanding.  Her Azucena was intense and a bit mad.  Haroutounian sings beautifully but is not the big voiced singer we find with Radvanovsky, Netrebko or Harteros.  I enjoyed Kunde's singing but find him a bit too old to be Anita's son.

Il Trovatore in HD 👍🏻

Conductor:  Marco Armiliato
Production:  David McVicar

Leonora:  Anna Netrebko (soprano)
Azucena:  Dolora Zajick (mezzo-soprano)
Manrico:  Yonghoon Lee (tenor)
di Luna:  Dmitri Hvorostovsky (baritone)
Ferrando:  Štefan Kocán (bass)

Heard in the theater during intermission of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD simulcast of Verdi's Il Trovatore, "Does it get better than this?"  Followed by, "No!  No, it does not!"  It truly does not.

People get really confused by the plot of this opera, and I think the main reason is because it spends so much time explaining things that took place in the long ago past.  A young prince got sick right after he had been visited by a gypsy woman who seemed like a witch.  When the gypsy woman was taken off to be burned at the stake, her daughter Azucena kidnapped the sick child.  Then seeing her mother burning and her mother shouting out "avenge me," Azucena grabbed the nearest child and threw her own baby into the fire.  She kept the kidnapped child and raised him as her own.  This story gets told twice and then is referred to constantly by the different characters.  We would just rather watch the people we are seeing on the stage.

Azucena is really quite mad and is really quite happy when the son she has raised and loved is killed because at last her mother is avenged.  Yes.  Being avenged is what matters most.  And no one either sings or plays the really quite mad Azucena better than Dolora Zajick who owns this role.  She is the first block in the "four greatest singers" quadrangle required for this opera.

The plot on the stage is just your garden variety love triangle.  Both Conte di Luna and the gypsy Manrico love Leonora.  Manrico serenades Leonora and di Luna just lurks around looking dour.  It isn't hard to grasp why she prefers Manrico.  Enough about the plot.

Two, Anna and Dmitri, of this trio of singers are my absolute favorites in their respective Fachs.  (Or what is the plural of Fach?)  Much fuss was made over Dmitri because he is still in treatment for his brain tumor.  He spoke to us and thanked us for all the love.  His singing was powerful and emotional, a genuine experience.

A year ago after watching the stream of this opera from Salzburg I wrote, "I love Anna and find that she almost achieves the greatness here that she desires and will do so in the future."  I am very pleased to report that she has.  This is the greatest Leonora I have ever seen.  Her gorgeous voice is receiving spectacular attention to detail while retaining all of her wonderful emotion.  She is the opera singer for our age. 

Yonghoon Lee would rate a lot more raves if he were in any cast but this one.  Nevertheless he was outstanding.  It was all in all an emotional day at the opera.

At the end the orchestra repeated their ovation of white roses for Hvorostovsky.  Be well, maestro.

Footnote.  The San Francisco Opera also uses the McVicar production for this opera.

Il Trovatore from Salzburg

 

Conductor:  Daniele Gatti
Production:  Alvis Hermanis

Leonora:  Anna Netrebko
Azucena:  Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Manrico:  Francesco Meli
Count di Luna:  Plácido Domingo

Il Trovatore from Salzburg started earlier in the morning than I expected, and I missed the first half.  I'll have to pay more attention in the future.  I listened to the audio of the first half.

I think the way this looks is amazing, but it does not meet my requirement that the staging should explain the plot.  This staging explains nothing and is maybe as senseless as the Bayerische Staatsoper version here.  The stream also had no subtitles.  So memory has to do all the explaining.

We're in a museum with spectacular European art works, and the characters are people who work for the museum.  They switch into and back out of period costumes.  Perhaps the staging explains that Leonora and her adventures exist only in the mind of A. Netrebko (someone pointed out that the name tag on her blue suit says "A. Netrebko.")   I found it mildly amusing that while the tragedy is playing out, there might be art lovers sitting on the benches.

Netrebko and Domingo both premiered in these roles in Berlin last season.  They are both stage creatures who bring a lot of theatrical energy to their roles.  I love Anna and find that she almost achieves the greatness here that she desires and will do so in the future.  She occasionally diminuendos unnecessarily and loses a bit of control.  Her trill has very much improved.  Her voice, which is spectacular in this repertoire, is more beautiful than Callas, Radvanovsky or even Harteros, but she does not quite conquer it physically.  

Placido.  Well, he's my age and I am generally astounded that he sounds as good as he does.  He is doing a better job of sounding like a baritone these days.  He was supposed to be old in Nabucco, but di Luna is supposed to be an age similar to Manrico.  It doesn't work.  He uses his voice to great theatrical effect, but the sound is that of an old man.

In the bows Gatti was vigorously shaking the hand of Francesco Meli, a real, honest to god Italian tenor.  Others have said he was blah, but I'm not sure he doesn't just seem so in comparison to Netrebko and Domingo, basically the definition of not blah.  He's young.  I found him promising.

I missed the best parts of Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

I must mention that brightly colored nail polish was part of the costuming.  I'm happy to see Netrebko is still climbing on the furniture.

Post Script.  I'm incredibly picky here.  This is actually amazing.  Watch it on medici.tv now.

Il Trovatore in Sacramento

Michael Morgan, Conductor
Robert Tannenbaum, Director

Ferrando: Tom McNichols
Inez: Rebecca Sjöwall
Leonora: Tiffany Abban
Count Di Luna: Marcus Jupither
Manrico: Arnold Rawls
Azucena: Tichina Vaughn

Ruiz: Theo Lebow

The Sacramento Opera presented Verdi's Il Trovatore at the  Community Center Theater.  It plays again tomorrow, March 2 at 8:00.

Following the trend of present day opera after Muti omitted the anvils, there were no anvils in the Anvil Chorus and no percussion to replace them.  If you insist on anvils, here it is with them:



The film includes some "Stride la vampa" as well.  Verdi did not compose anvils.

I digress.  When this was announced, I felt somewhat dubious about the whole thing.  This opera is very difficult to sing.  The cast changed my mind.

Azucena and Count di Luna in particular were well up to the task.  Manrico was light for the role but threw off a fabulous high C. 

What made a trip to the opera a really wonderful experience was Tiffany Abban, the Leonora of the evening.  She was a last minute replacement and was fabulous.  The picture above is her.  You should go just for her.

Bayerische Staatsoper Il Trovatore

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Conductor Paolo Carignani
Production Olivier Py

Conte di Luna: Alexey Markov
Leonora: Anja Harteros
Azucena: Elena Manistina
Manrico: Jonas Kaufmann
Ferrando: Kwangchul Youn
Ines: Golda Schultz
Ruiz: Francesco Petrozzi


It was a lot of fun watching the stream of Il Trovatore from the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.  Nowadays the European producers are all ex-psychoanalysts.  Everything happens for some deep psychological reason which we then display on the stage.  And what better reason for this treatment than the twisted motives of Il Trovatore?

Count di Luna's father killed Azucena's gypsy mother because she looked at his new born son?  This is another racial hatred plot.  When people in white cone hats show up, we Americans imagine it has something to do with the Ku Klux Klan, but my sources say this is supposed to represent the inquisition.  Azucena spends the rest of her life trying to avenge her mother's death.  In our production Azucena's mother is constantly present on the stage in the person of a thin skeletal woman with long blond hair (ballet, I think).  We aren't allowed to forget her importance in the story.

So Manrico is also a mess.  Azucena tells him that in a frenzy she threw her own son into her mother's flames.  "So then who am I?" he asks.  He is a warrior and a singer and a lover and a very confused guy.  Early in the opera he tries to kill di Luna but something prevents him.

Count di Luna has the mysterious ghost of his lost brother whom rumor would tell us is not dead but kidnapped by the gypsies.  Of course, this brother is Manrico.  It's interesting that I am interested in the plot of this opera for the first time.

This leaves Leonora, the romantic object of both Manrico and di Luna.  How can we make her more complicated, too?  In this production she is blind, making her mistaking di Luna for Manrico more  believable.

There is a stage within a stage which in the anvil scene contains a large cylinder that someone beats on.  It's something to make noise when there are no anvils.  Though not in the score, the anvils are such a firm tradition that no one but Muti ever leaves them out.  The following scene included real nudity by a dancer in the small stage.  Only her shoes remain after she removes her clothes.  I am tempted to digress into nudity at the opera, but will resist.

We are not here for the production, interesting as it may be.  Anja Harteros doesn't really like to travel and is most at home performing in her home house, the Bayerische Staatsoper.  She was simply magnificent and received the most accolades.  I shouted a few bravas at my computer for fun.  This is how we like our Verdi.  The soprano dominates the ensembles with the natural force of her voice and not through shouting and distortion of the tone.  Her phrasing is a joy.  I am a fan.

There was a fuss because Jonas Kaufmann sang "di quella pira" a half tone down.  This is an established operatic tradition every bit as firmly established as the anvils.  Muti leaves out the uncomposed high C that makes this transposition necessary.  Jonas's performance of this aria was exciting.  I listened to this opera in a pirated recording earlier in the week, and I liked him a lot more in this performance.  His confused Manrico was very sympathetic.

They put together an excellent cast for this.  Is Munich now the center of the operatic universe?

P.S.  I see in the teaser a lot more nudity than I saw on the stream. This specific performance is not really suitable for DVD release because while Frau Harteros was generally wonderful, she fudged most of her high notes, perhaps the conductor's fault.

In the teaser the director says that the production is supposed to be a nightmare.  Does that make it less horrible?

Il Trovatore from Munich

Sorry, original film is gone. Here is a tantalizing taste of the Il Trovatore from Munich that streams July 5.  This one is the trailer, but has some nice singing examples.



Anja Harteros grows on me.  The Verdi Wagner year is her year.

Il Trovatore in HD

I made it to the rerun of Il Trovatore in HD last night, and it turned out to be a rerun of Il Trovatore in San Francisco in 2009. The sets and costumes and even some of the cast were the same, except this was the first cast instead of the stand-ins.

And what a cast it was:

Manrico: Marcelo Alvarez
Leonora: Sondra Radvanovsky
Azucena: Dolora Zajick
Count di Luna: Dmitri Hvorostovsky

Conductor:  Marco Armiliato
Production: David McVicar

I agree with Renée Fleming, the hostess--to assemble such a cast is an event. There was quite a bit of excellent information in the interviews. All the performers liked the rotating set by Charles Edwards because it allowed the action to flow without stopping for set changes. All the interviewees agreed that their character is crazy.

The plot was explained by Dolora Zajick. Azucena tries to get Manrico to kill di Luna to avenge her mother's death, and when he won't, she arranges for di Luna to kill Manrico. This makes her happy. I see it now. Opera plots are so sick.

Each singer was more wonderful than the last. Sondra Radvanovsky just gets better and better. Zajick owns her role. Marcelo is the most insane troubadour I've ever seen.

But my award has to go to the incredible singing of Dmitri Hvorostovsky. It doesn't get better than this.
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Il Trovatore

Last night was the final performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore at the San Francisco Opera. I seem to have messed up. Instead of this cast:

* Manrico: Marco Berti
* Leonora: Sondra Radvanovsky
* Azucena: Stephanie Blythe
* Count di Luna: Dmitri Hvorostovsky

We got this cast:

* Manrico: Marco Berti
* Leonora: Sondra Radvanovsky
* Azucena: Malgorzata Walewska
* Count di Luna: Quinn Kelsey

D. swears she told me, but I guess I wasn't listening.

I was stunned to see that this was Sondra Radvanovsky's debut at the San Francisco Opera. The rumor mill says she is not scheduled to sing here any time soon. This is hard to understand. She is one of the best Verdi singer's around and was excellent in this hard to cast opera. Luisotti could be seen waving his baton for her in the applause. She performed the entire role in her bare feet, something that may account for the fact that she had turned her ankle and had to reblock her movements. You could see the brace on her leg. I thought she still moved well, and sang impressively.

I liked Quinn Kelsey, though I missed Dmitri. I would have preferred to see Stephanie Blythe as Azucena.

The aura of excitement that filled the opera from beginning to end is due to our new maestro Nicola Luisotti. Bravo maestro! Welcome to San Francisco.

My favorite thing to do in blogging is to give advice, so here goes. Marco Berti has a fine Verdi tenor voice, but exhibits a lot of the idiosyncrasies that seem to come with every Italian singer these days [excluding obvious exception]. If you go to hear opera excerpts along the Via Nazionale in Rome, you will hear some of these same problems. Too much punching and not enough phrasing. The punching is easy. The phrasing is hard. Piu legato. Sempre legato. Per favore. Pavarotti became the greatest singer of the twentieth century because Joan Sutherland taught him how to breathe. Get her to teach you.

People hate this, I know. It won't help you to hate me.

I'm comforting myself with this:


[See Kinderkuchen History 1850-70]

Il Trovatore

I was happily reading Divas and Scholars where he tells about the huge scandal at La Scala when Riccardo Muti insisted that the tenor, Salvatore Licitra, not take the interpolated and inauthentic high C at the end of "Di quella pira" in Verdi's Il Trovatore. Wait. Don't I have a Trovatore from House of Opera with Muti conducting and Licitra as Manrico? How interesting!

This is a pretty terrific Trovatore. Besides Muti and Licitra, the cast includes Leo Nucci as di Luna, Barbara Frittoli as Leonora and Violeta Urmana as Azucena. I bought this DVD to hear Licitra, and it's entirely possible that leaving out the high C is what allowed him to sing this role. For me this is a small sacrifice. This opera is treacherously difficult to cast. The whole opera is relentlessly intense, very heavy, and full of dramatic accentuations, but with virtually all of Bellini's coloratura left in. Caruso is supposed to have said, "All it takes to perform Il Trovatore is the four greatest singers in the world."

According to Divas and Scholars, Muti was attempting to recreate Trovatore as Verdi would have done it. If I had a score, I could follow along and see what has changed, but I did manage to notice the absence of anvils in the Anvil Chorus. Not much of anything happens on the off beats.

This is very fine Verdi indeed, something we never seemed to get in San Francisco. Scandal or no, Muti gets the most applause.

P.S. If I give such a high rating to a House of Opera DVD, it's for the musical content, not the quality of the copy. Please beware.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1850-70]