Giuseppe Verdi’s ”Il Trovatore” is one of the classic
operas, that you should regularly see. My last Trovatore was a while back, so I
was quite interested in seeing in the Finnish National Opera the joint
production of Teatre del Liceu and Olvideon Teatro Campoamor.
“Il Trovatore’s” story is often considered to be one of
the dumbest in the operatic world. The seeds of the story have been sown before
the opera takes place. A gypsy woman, accused of cursing the other son of Count
di Luna, is burnt at a stake. A body of a small child is also found from the
ashes and it is believed to be the son, who was abducted by the gypsy’s
daughter. The opera takes place 15
years later. Young couple in love (Leonora and Manrico) and Count di
Luna form the three sides of a triangle in the middle of a civil war. Manrico’s
mother, Azucena, is the daughter of the gypsy woman burnt at the stake and she
is obsessed by her need to revenge the death of her mother. Count di Luna
finally captures Azucena and accuses her of the death of her brother. When
Manrico rushes to rescue his mother, he is also imprisoned. Then Leonora
promises to become Luna’s own (he is insanely in love with her) and in exchange
he agrees to free Manrico. In reality Leonora does not want Luna, but takes
poison to kill herself. When Luna realizes that Leonora has betrayed him, he
kills Manrico. At that point Azucena inform him, that he has just killed his
own brother. The baby burnt at the stake was actually Azucena’s own son. So
just an everyday story that could happen to all of us.
If the story is complete fluff, the music of the opera is
in its own class. “Il Trovatore” is known for its numerous arias that follow
each other almost without breaks. And the arias are no second class tunes, but
first class Verdi. You definitely don’t fall asleep during this almost three
hour long opera.
Joan Anton Rechi, who has created the stage design
concept and Albert Faura, who has designed the lights, have together created a
simple, darkish background to a bloody story. In my opinion they have managed
to create suitable surroundings for an opera, whose message is that the circle
of revenge destroys everybody. Rechi himself (he is also the director) has said
that he has used as an inspiration to the direction Francisco de Goya’s series
of etchings “The Disasters of War” (which were also seen in the background
videos). And it is true that the etchings stressed wonderfully the cruelty of
war and the fatality of revenge. Goya himself actually also walked around the
stage as an eye witness.
But ”Il Trovatore” is above all an opera of excellent
music and when the performers are world class, it becomes a true masterpiece.
The biggest star of the performance was Elena Stikhina in the role of Leonora. Divine voice and stunning performance. Unfortunately
Manrico (the hero) was rather stiff on the stage (and didn’t really look like a
charming hero, either), so that the credibility of boundless love did suffer a
bit. The second gorgeous performer was in my opinion Sari Nordqvist in the role
of Azucena. Splendid, strong voice and she really became Azucena on the stage.
Even though the spectator’s reason fought against the idea of revenge, it was
impossible not to understand the hatred of the suffering daughter. The Finnish National Opera chorus also made a stellar performance.
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