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Il trovatore at Covent Garden, London

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  • Il trovatore at Covent Garden, London

    The Times (London)
    May 5, 2004, Wednesday

    Il trovatore

    by Hilary Finch

    Il trovatore. Covent Garden. ***

    ELIJAH MOSHINSKY has returned to direct the first revival of his
    visually spectacular Il trovatore, new to the Royal Opera two years
    ago. With Dante Ferretti (designer for the likes of Pasolini, Fellini
    and Scorsese) in charge of the sets, it's still a banquet for the
    eye. Except, that is, for the monochrome landscape images which act
    as curtain projections between the overlong scene changes.

    Verdi's four musical canvases -the Duel, the Gypsy, the Gypsy's Son
    and the Punishment -are realised in monumental tableaux, each one
    beautifully lit by Howard Harrison. Every entrance in the dark
    shadows of the first is framed by a line of lofty pillars; Azucena
    and her band of Risorgimento partisans hide out among four massive,
    glowing furnaces; exquisite Piranesi-like perspectives of glass and
    steel house the convent.

    But there's a price to pay for this visual magnificence. Tableaux
    they may be; but Verdi's are tableaux vivants, and Moshinsky's
    staging, seduced by its own beauty, does too little to empower this
    cast beyond formulaic body language. There's simply too little
    impassioned engagement with the music, with each other or with the
    audience.

    This is very much in the nature of the beast. While Moshinsky's
    production admirably realises the form of Verdi's opera, it can too
    easily stifle its beating heart. The individual seems trapped within
    the massive set pieces: the emotional charge at the meeting of Di
    Luna, Manrico and Leonora in the convent is diffused by the fearful
    symmetry of the stagecraft; the sparring of the Count's leather-clad
    soldiers in Part III is almost risibly "choreographed".

    Dwarfed by their environments, a strong new cast stand and deliver
    goods of considerable quality. Three Eastern European singers
    contribute effectively to Verdi's dark palette in this opera.

    The opening narrative is compellingly and elegantly shaped by the
    Ferrando of the Armenian bass-baritone Arutjun Kotchinian. And the
    Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli brings menace, if too little ardour
    and anger to the role of Di Luna. In the Russian mezzo Irina Mishura,
    Azucena, Verdi's own favourite, has both the high flare of flame and
    a dark anguish within her true chest voice. She simply isn't
    exploited enough on stage.

    Marco Berti's coarse-edged and tirelessly robust Manrico and Fiorenza
    Cedolins's Leonora sing feistily, but too seldom to each other.

    The Royal Opera Orchestra play superbly for the veteran Verdian
    Edward Downes; but on the first night, even he was unable to provide
    quite the elan and momentum this show still needs.

    Box office: 020-7304 4000
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