'Il Trovatore' is not one of Verdi's best operas. The story is very convoluted (still in a muddle trying to sum up the whole business with Azucena and her given circumstances), and it has also been criticised understandably for being improbable and having over-the-top motivations.
This said, 'Il Trovatore' is phenomenal musically, possessing some of Verdi's most memorable arias ("Di Quella Pira", "Stride La Vampa", "D'Amor Sull'Alli Rosee" and "Il Balen"), one of his most famous choruses that has sometimes been used effectively in films in "The Anvil Chorus" and overall it is one of his most melodically rich scores. The opera is also memorable for the character of the gypsy Azucena.
Some may say that 'Il Trovatore' despite a solid-in-quality recording history that it is not well-served on DVD. For me, there are some great productions on DVD (1957, 1978, 2002, 2012 and 1988, the last one is probably going to be met with raised eyebrows, last year's Met production when released on DVD will also apply here) but also others that do not come off well (the Parma, Bregenz and Berlin performances, if the 2014 Salzburg production is released that for me was another misfire). This production does have a good amount going for it, all of it musically, but this reviewer didn't really care for it.
Granted, there are some fine things with this 'Il Trovatore'. The orchestral playing, whether dramatically powerful, energetically sprightly or intimately nuanced, is first rate. Loved that there was more prominence on the woodwind section, which is not always heard. The chorus sing beautifully and are well-balanced, but robbed of a chance to show off their acting skills. Marc Minkowski makes his debut in Verdi, being a French repertoire, Baroque and Mozart specialist, and while there were concerns as to whether he would be out of his depth this is actually a pretty magnificent first attempt, being authoritative and sympathetic, with lots of swift energy and dynamic contrast and intensity.
Principal singing is a very mixed bag here, but three come off very well. Sylvie Brunet as Azucena is especially good, she has a riveting stage presence that's menacingly imperious but also poignantly conflicted and, while there was the worry as to whether her voice was big enough for the role (out of everything this reviewer has heard her in Azucena is the heaviest role Brunet has done), she sings quite powerfully with a rich bottom and a gleaming top. Scott Hendricks has a sonorous and generously-sized voice that is used intelligently, and he acts DiLuna very well, he is undermined a little by Tcherniakov deciding to over-emphasise DiLuna's villainy and make him less subtle and dimensional than he actually is but Hendricks does act with plenty of dramatic intensity and succeeds in trying to give DiLuna a conflicted edge. Giovanni Furlanetto is a very authoritative and dark-toned Ferrando, the production starting on a promising note from the viewer still being compelled to listen to Ferrando's dark tale.
Misha Didyk however sounds massively taxed as Manrico, much of his vocal production is throaty and strained with very little sensitivity and nuance especially at the end of Act 3 (not in a long time has this reviewer heard a more strained "Di Quella Pira"), and he is at best an indifferent actor. Marina Poplavskaya is a little better, at least she shows an involved dramatic ability with a radiant and very moving stage presence and unlike Didyk there are some beautiful sounds in her middle register, it is just a shame that too many of the high notes sound shrieked and there is a lack of legato.
Visually, it isn't ugly but it's just too one-dimensional and was in need of more variety, it's also quite cluttered and claustrophobic too. Tcherniakov's stage direction didn't work for me, from past experience Tcherniakov has sometimes worked (i.e. his Met 'Prince Igor', which was a great attempt at making something interesting of an incomplete opera) and at other times he doesn't (his incredibly bizarre and at times offensive 'Dialogues Des Carmelites', which did the seemingly impossible task of ruining the most poignant final scene in all opera and completely ignored that opera's specific time period and Poulenc's equally explicit directions).
Here, the stage direction thankfully doesn't reach the offensiveness of 'Dialogues Des Carmelites', but, as well as logical lapses and making DiLuna too much of a villain, like the other disappointing DVD releases available it does fail to make the story clearer (some of the staging actually confused the action more), less over-the-top (as seen with DiLuna the over-the-top-ness was more here) and less improbable, which really restricts the drama so any intensity or emotional impact doesn't come through enough. It is also a real shame that the chorus were resorted to singing off-stage, one can understand Tcherniakov when he says that while their role in the opera is big it's not dramatically active, but surely he could have found a way to work around that (like David McVicar for the Met managed to), this just felt old fashioned and lazy.
Overall, musically impressive but too often dramatically puzzling with a very weak Manrico. 5/10 Bethany Cox
This said, 'Il Trovatore' is phenomenal musically, possessing some of Verdi's most memorable arias ("Di Quella Pira", "Stride La Vampa", "D'Amor Sull'Alli Rosee" and "Il Balen"), one of his most famous choruses that has sometimes been used effectively in films in "The Anvil Chorus" and overall it is one of his most melodically rich scores. The opera is also memorable for the character of the gypsy Azucena.
Some may say that 'Il Trovatore' despite a solid-in-quality recording history that it is not well-served on DVD. For me, there are some great productions on DVD (1957, 1978, 2002, 2012 and 1988, the last one is probably going to be met with raised eyebrows, last year's Met production when released on DVD will also apply here) but also others that do not come off well (the Parma, Bregenz and Berlin performances, if the 2014 Salzburg production is released that for me was another misfire). This production does have a good amount going for it, all of it musically, but this reviewer didn't really care for it.
Granted, there are some fine things with this 'Il Trovatore'. The orchestral playing, whether dramatically powerful, energetically sprightly or intimately nuanced, is first rate. Loved that there was more prominence on the woodwind section, which is not always heard. The chorus sing beautifully and are well-balanced, but robbed of a chance to show off their acting skills. Marc Minkowski makes his debut in Verdi, being a French repertoire, Baroque and Mozart specialist, and while there were concerns as to whether he would be out of his depth this is actually a pretty magnificent first attempt, being authoritative and sympathetic, with lots of swift energy and dynamic contrast and intensity.
Principal singing is a very mixed bag here, but three come off very well. Sylvie Brunet as Azucena is especially good, she has a riveting stage presence that's menacingly imperious but also poignantly conflicted and, while there was the worry as to whether her voice was big enough for the role (out of everything this reviewer has heard her in Azucena is the heaviest role Brunet has done), she sings quite powerfully with a rich bottom and a gleaming top. Scott Hendricks has a sonorous and generously-sized voice that is used intelligently, and he acts DiLuna very well, he is undermined a little by Tcherniakov deciding to over-emphasise DiLuna's villainy and make him less subtle and dimensional than he actually is but Hendricks does act with plenty of dramatic intensity and succeeds in trying to give DiLuna a conflicted edge. Giovanni Furlanetto is a very authoritative and dark-toned Ferrando, the production starting on a promising note from the viewer still being compelled to listen to Ferrando's dark tale.
Misha Didyk however sounds massively taxed as Manrico, much of his vocal production is throaty and strained with very little sensitivity and nuance especially at the end of Act 3 (not in a long time has this reviewer heard a more strained "Di Quella Pira"), and he is at best an indifferent actor. Marina Poplavskaya is a little better, at least she shows an involved dramatic ability with a radiant and very moving stage presence and unlike Didyk there are some beautiful sounds in her middle register, it is just a shame that too many of the high notes sound shrieked and there is a lack of legato.
Visually, it isn't ugly but it's just too one-dimensional and was in need of more variety, it's also quite cluttered and claustrophobic too. Tcherniakov's stage direction didn't work for me, from past experience Tcherniakov has sometimes worked (i.e. his Met 'Prince Igor', which was a great attempt at making something interesting of an incomplete opera) and at other times he doesn't (his incredibly bizarre and at times offensive 'Dialogues Des Carmelites', which did the seemingly impossible task of ruining the most poignant final scene in all opera and completely ignored that opera's specific time period and Poulenc's equally explicit directions).
Here, the stage direction thankfully doesn't reach the offensiveness of 'Dialogues Des Carmelites', but, as well as logical lapses and making DiLuna too much of a villain, like the other disappointing DVD releases available it does fail to make the story clearer (some of the staging actually confused the action more), less over-the-top (as seen with DiLuna the over-the-top-ness was more here) and less improbable, which really restricts the drama so any intensity or emotional impact doesn't come through enough. It is also a real shame that the chorus were resorted to singing off-stage, one can understand Tcherniakov when he says that while their role in the opera is big it's not dramatically active, but surely he could have found a way to work around that (like David McVicar for the Met managed to), this just felt old fashioned and lazy.
Overall, musically impressive but too often dramatically puzzling with a very weak Manrico. 5/10 Bethany Cox
