Il trovatore
Tags: revenge

Plot synopsis:
Place: Biscay and Aragon (Spain)
Time: Fifteenth century.
=== Act 1: The Duel ===
Scene 1: The guard room in the castle of Luna (The Palace of Aljafería, Zaragoza, Spain)
Ferrando, the captain of the guards, orders his men to keep watch while Count di Luna wanders restlessly beneath the windows of Leonora, lady-in-waiting to the Princess. Di Luna loves Leonora and is jealous of his successful rival, a troubadour whose identity he does not know. In order to keep the guards awake, Ferrando narrates the history of the count (Aria: Di due figli vivea padre beato / "The good Count di Luna lived happily, the father of two sons"): many years ago, a gypsy was wrongfully accused of having bewitched the youngest of the di Luna children; the child had fallen sick and for this the gypsy had been burnt alive as a witch, her protests of innocence ignored. Dying, she had commanded her daughter Azucena to avenge her, which she did by abducting the baby. Although the burnt bones of a child were found in the ashes of the pyre, the father refused to believe in his son's death; dying, he commanded his firstborn, the new Count di Luna, to seek Azucena.
Scene 2: Garden in the palace of the princess
Leonora confesses her love for the Troubadour to her confidante, Ines (Tacea la notte placida / "The peaceful night lay silent"... Di tale amor / "A love that words can scarcely describe"), in which she tells how she fell in love with a mystery knight, victor at a tournament: lost track of him when a civil war broke out: then encountered him again, in disguise as a wandering troubadour who sang beneath her window. When they have gone, Count di Luna enters, intending to pay court to Leonora himself, but hears the voice of his rival, in the distance: (Deserto sulla terra / "Alone upon this earth"). Leonora in the darkness briefly mistakes the count for her lover, until the Troubadour himself enters the garden, and she rushes to his arms. The Count challenges his rival to reveal his true identity, which he does: Manrico, a knight now outlawed and under death sentence for his allegiance to a rival prince. Manrico in turn challenges him to call the guards, but the Count regards this encounter as a personal rather than political matter, and challenges Manrico instead to a duel over their common love. Leonora tries to intervene, but cannot stop them from fighting (Trio: Di geloso amor sprezzato / "The fire of jealous love" ).
=== Act 2: The Gypsy Woman ===
Scene 1: The gypsies' camp
The gypsies sing the Anvil Chorus: Vedi le fosche notturne / "See! The endless sky casts off her sombre nightly garb...". Azucena, the daughter of the Gypsy burnt by the count, is still haunted by her duty to avenge her mother (Aria: Stride la vampa / "The flames are roaring!"). The Gypsies break camp while Azucena confesses to Manrico that after stealing the di Luna baby she had intended to burn the count's little son along with her mother, but overwhelmed by the screams and the gruesome scene of her mother's execution, she became confused and threw her own child into the flames instead (Aria: Condotta ell'era in ceppi / "They dragged her in bonds").
Manrico realises that he is not the son of Azucena, but loves her as if she were indeed his mother, as she has always been faithful and loving to him - and, indeed, saved his life only recently, discovering him left for dead on a battlefield after being caught in ambush. Manrico tells Azucena that he defeated di Luna in their earlier duel, but was held back from killing him by a mysterious power (Duet: Mal reggendo / "He was helpless under my savage attack"): and Azucena reproaches him for having stayed his hand then, especially since it was the Count's forces that defeated him in the subsequent battle of Pelilla. A messenger arrives and reports that Manrico's allies have taken Castle Castellor, which Manrico is ordered to hold in the name of his prince: and also that Leonora, who believes Manrico dead, is about to enter a convent and take the veil that night. Although Azucena tries to prevent him from leaving in his weak state (Ferma! Son io che parlo a te! / "I must talk to you"), Manrico rushes away to prevent her from carrying out this intent.
Scene 2: In front of the convent
Di Luna and his attendants intend to abduct Leonora and the Count sings of his love for her (Aria: Il balen del suo sorriso / "The light of her smile" ... Per me ora fatale / "Fatal hour of my life"). Leonora and the nuns appear in procession, but Manrico prevents di Luna from carrying out his plans and takes Leonora away with him, although once again leaving the Count behind unharmed, as the soldiers on both sides back down from bloodshed, the Count being held back by his own men.
=== Act 3: The Son of the Gypsy Woman ===
Scene 1: Di Luna's camp
Di Luna and his army are attacking the fortress Castellor where Manrico has taken refuge with Leonora (Chorus: Or co' dadi ma fra poco / "Now we play at dice"). Ferrando drags in Azucena, who has been captured wandering near the camp. When she hears di Luna’s name, Azucena’s reactions arouse suspicion and Ferrando recognizes her as the supposed murderer of the count’s brother. Azucena cries out to her son Manrico to rescue her and the count realizes that he has the means to flush his enemy out of the fortress. He orders his men to build a pyre and burn Azucena before the walls.
Scene 2: A chamber in the castle
Inside the castle, Manrico and Leonora are preparing to be married. She is frightened; the battle with di Luna is imminent and Manrico’s forces are outnumbered. He assures her of his love (Aria, Manrico: Ah sì, ben mio, coll'essere / "Ah, yes, my love, in being yours"), even in the face of death. When news of Azucena’s capture reaches him, he summons his men and desperately prepares to attack (Stretta: Di quella pira l'orrendo foco / "The horrid flames of that pyre"). Leonora faints.
=== Act 4: The Punishment ===
Scene 1: Before the dungeon keep
Manrico has failed to free Azucena and has been imprisoned himself. Leonora attempts to free him (Aria: D'amor sull'ali rosee / "On the rosy wings of love"; Chorus & Duet: Miserere / "Lord, thy mercy on this soul") by begging di Luna for mercy and offers herself in place of her lover. She promises to give herself to the count, but secretly swallows poison from her ring in order to die before di Luna can possess her (Duet: Mira, d'acerbe lagrime / "See the bitter tears I shed").
Scene 2: In the dungeon
Manrico and Azucena are awaiting their execution. Manrico attempts to soothe Azucena, whose mind wanders to happier days in the mountains (Duet: Ai nostri monti ritorneremo / "Again to our mountains we shall return"). At last the gypsy slumbers. Leonora comes to Manrico and tells him that he is saved, begging him to escape. When he discovers she cannot accompany him, he refuses to leave his prison. He believes Leonora has betrayed him until he realizes that she has taken poison to remain true to him. As she dies in agony in Manrico's arms she confesses that she prefers to die with him than to marry another (Trio: Prima che d'altri vivere / "Rather than live as another's"). The count has heard Leonora's last words and orders Manrico's execution. Azucena awakes and tries to stop di Luna. Once Manrico is dead, she cries: Egli era tuo fratello! Sei vendicata, o madre. / "He was your brother ... You are avenged, oh mother!"

Review: Dmitri Tcherniakov deconstructs 'Il Trovatore' to musically impressive but often dramatically puzzling effect. '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