Review: IL TROVATORE, Royal Opera House

This is not the first time in recent memory that a new production at the Royal Opera House has raided the great art galleries for inspiration. Last season’s Rigoletto channelled Caravaggio’s Mannerism to evoke the surreptitious sexiness of a dramatically lit Medici court. From the Uffizi to the Prado, Adele Thomas’ hot-blooded new production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore turns to the mystical surrealism and Dantesque hellishness of Hieronymus Bosch. But is it a Garden of Earthly Delights?

Il Trovatore is Verdi’s chivalric romance on steroids. Imperious Count Di Luna is in love with Leonora who loves Manrico, a mysterious troubadour and officer in Di Luna’s rival’s army. Things get knotty quickly with Manrico believing himself to be the son of Azucena, a gypsy, who seeks revenge for the burning of her mother at the stake. Knives are drawn, armies march to war, and blood boils with the heat of ferocious passion.

A Viennese critic once observed that characters in Il Trovatore arrive on stage as if shot by a pistol. Here they arrive by blunderbuss. They explode onto the set, a barren but versatile raked set of stairs, in a dazzling medieval technicolour. The chorus frolic like a frenzied football crowd watching Bedlam FC, their costumes quoting Bosch’s demented semi-human figures in all their carnivalesque weirdness. They channel their bacchanalian energy into the music, their rendition of the ‘anvil chorus’ is a rollicking rollercoaster.

Despite the grander sequences and luxurious technical flourishes, the heart of the production lies in the subtler moments. Leonora, alone on stage with her silky medieval gown and flowing ginger hair recalls fittingly the melancholy of medieval chivalry that the Pre-Raphaelites yearned to capture in their art. She is a Lady of Shalott whose heart is twisted by Manrico’s doomed love.

Marina Rebeka’s immaculate performance tugs at the heart strings. Her voice is breezy, like a curtain caught in a gentle gust of wind on a summer afternoon. Even when the opera takes a turn towards tragedy, she finds mesmeric light amongst the darkness.

Rebeka has gorgeous chemistry alongside Riccardo Massi’s Manrico. His dark chocolatey vocals rich with desire, the two command the space with thrilling warmth propped up by Anthony Pappano’s fast, fresh, and fruity conducting. It’s like the sonic equivalent of unpeeling a juicy Valencia orange.

Di Luna too has a poignant power. Ludovic Tézier’s baritone is olive oil-smooth; his declaration of untenable love for Leonora, Il balen del suo sorriso, at the end of the second act is a moment of moving poignance in the face of the inevitable. As with most Italian operas where there is a love triangle there is also tragedy; Thomas’ finely tuned artistic vision balances the paradoxes of desire effortlessly so that both sides can blossom with full blooded feeling.   

Il Trovatore plays at the Royal Opera House until 2 July

Photo Credit: Camilla Greenwell