By James Karas
The Royal Opera
House’s Il Trovatore is a war opera. Black and grey colours dominate. You
will see tanks, machine guns, campers, smoke, wooden crosses, fires burning
and, yes, passions raging. This is David Bösch’s modern-dress interpretation of
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. A bit of torture and war crimes can be gleaned but the
final tableau will be a huge, fiery heart that could be interpreted as the
triumph of love through death.
Bösch made his Royal
Opera House debut with this production last July and it has been revived with
Julia Burbach as the Revival Director.
Il Trovatore at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden. Photo: Clive Barda
American tenor
Gregory Kunde did a respectable job as the troubadour Manrico. He sang somewhat
heroically but without passion. We expect him to be overwhelming in his heroism
and expression of love for Leonora and he simply did not deliver it. His
appearance did not help. His drab costume made him look like an unemployed
warehouse worker and even a gypsy troubadour should strike a better pose than
that.
Leonora, the
woman who loved him to death does a much better job in the hands of Armenian
soprano Lianna Haroutounian. Dressed in dramatic white amid the gloomy colours
of the others, she sang with emotional conviction and dramatic effect.
Leonora needs a
great deal of strength and conviction because she is loved by two fierce
warriors, Manrico and Count di Luna. The latter will not take “no” for an
answer and he is ferocious in love and war. Dmitri Hvorostovsky was scheduled
to take the role but he cancelled because of illness. Ukrainian baritone
Vitaliy Bilyy made his Royal Opera House debut replacing Hvorostovsky. He was
authoritative physically and vocally and gave a superb performance.
Il Trovatore at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden. Photo: Clive Barda
Georgian
mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili outdid everyone as the gypsy Azucena. “Stole
the show” is the catchphrase that comes to mind but that would be unfair and
untrue. She did not steal it – she earned it. She delivered an outstanding
performance in an admittedly marvellous role and the audience just loved her. Rachvelishvili has a marvellous, smoky voice
that can spew venom and passion as she single-mindedly pursues vengeance. One
enjoys every minute of her presence on stage.
Ukrainian bass Alexander
Tsymbalyuk deserves praise for his performance in the relatively minor role of
Ferrando. He is the fine officer who carries out orders and Tsymbalyuk sang
with commendable sonority.
Patrick Bannwart
designed the set and video projection with the intent of emphasizing the
internecine conflict of the opposing parties, with considerable war machines in
use. The soldiers may sing of fighting with swords for glory and plunder but
the images we see on stage suggest something far more brutal. A captured
soldier is senselessly brutalized and a noose is put around his neck and strung
on the muzzle of a tank. This is no glorious war.
Il Trovatore is a highly approachable opera despite its somewhat turgid plot. It
has some great melodies and between love duets and martial music it makes for
opera the way most people imagine it to be. Bösch gives us a far more nuanced
production and puts his imprimatur on the opera. That is what directors must
do.
The Orchestra of the Royal House Opera and
Royal Opera Chorus were conducted by Richard Farnes in an exceptional night at
the opera.
_______
Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by David Bösch was performed at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden six times between January 16 and February 9, 2017. www.roh.org.uk
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