WNO's il trovatore

By Robert Iles - 23rd Oct 2003

The story of Il trovatore (the Troubadour) follows the great opera rules; mistaken identity, un-requited love, jealousy and the death of the main characters! The opera is based on a play by Garcia Guttierez and has a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano but it is for Verdi's music that we all know and love the piece. This is actually a very easy to listen to opera, there are no long passages of uninteresting music to tell the story, no 'warbling sopranos' and sufficient plot to keep us interested. In all, a most enjoyable piece.

The story centres on a gypsy woman and her family. Her son, a troubadour and soldier, is in love with a Princess, but she is from another area and the to areas are at war. The Princess is also loved by a cruel Count but she loves her Troubadour and rejects him. Then we learn that the gypsy's mother was burnt at the stake by the Count's family and that the Count's brother disappeared and a child's bones were found in the witches pyre. People assume that she stole the baby and burned it, but through a momentary blindness of rage she had accidentally burnt her own son to death so brings up the Count's brother as if he was her own. With the Troubadour and his mother in the Count's jail and sentenced to death the Princess agrees to wed the Count in return for her lover's life but secretly takes a slow acting poison so that he can have her 'but only as a cold corpse'. The Count, cheated of his bride, has the Troubadour beheaded, at which point the gypsy reveals that he has killed his own brother and the opera ends! The story may have many flaws but it works well as an opera!

The Welsh National Opera's production (originally a Scottish Opera production) was designed by Tim Hartley who gives us a flexible space of large wooden 'walls' which is very effective and, with the dark costumes and Davy Cunningham's low lighting gives a very moody feel appropriate to the mood of the opera itself. The musical production is of an excellent standard with superb renditions by the leading singers; Patricia Barden's Azucena being particularly strong and Elena Lasovskaya's Leonora being particularly clear and moving.

If I have a criticism it is that it was an undramatic production. By this I mean that the director produced the more traditional 'face front and sing' production with little acted emotion. Indeed there was little relationship between words and actions throughout; a minor example, you cannot have the chorus holding up their wine and sing "the suns rays shine more brightly in the flask" if all the flasks they're trying to look through are clay. Considering the emotions in the words and music this is a shame, but I would still say, if you like il trovatore, go and see it. If you only know the opera from the highlights like 'Anvil Chorus' give it a go, the rest of this opera lives up to those highlights.