Il Trovatore at the Hippodrome

I went to hear ‘Il Trovatore’ at the Bristol Hippodrome last week, done by the Welsh National Opera. WNO doesn’t have the 4 best singers in the world that this opera is said to require, but the principals were all well matched once they’d sung themselves in. When I was sold my ticket, the box office warned me that I wouldn’t have a view of the surtitles, which I felt was not necessarily a drawback, given the libretto! (My favourite surtitle moment was at a performance of Ernani I went to in Manchester once: ‘Heavens! It’s the King’. Very hard not to snigger).

I realised how much Verdi’s music redeems the plot of the opera when I heard La Juive on the radio the following night. The dénument of the two operas is very similar; someone condemns another to die, then is told just as it is too late that the other is a close relative, the information having been witheld until then in order to achieve revenge. Halévy’s libretto handles the psychological side of of this in more depth, but Verdi’s music transcends the limitations of his.

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1 Response to Il Trovatore at the Hippodrome

  1. Don says:

    Il Trovatore has never been one of my favorite opera stories. It’s a bit forced, and of course, there is the stuff about burning babies.

    I agree that music can transcend the words and this is especially important in opera. For me, it is Mozart’s operas where it can help to not pay attention too closely to the libretti. Such wonderful music attached to the oddest stories. It is not true for all his operatic music, but there are moments where the silliness or more likely the heavy message of the day does not travel well to our time. But if the musicians are doing him justice, I can easily close my eyes and touch the heavenly alps where he takes us without worrying too much about the literal message.

    Best wishes during the holiday season. Roy Strong had a column in the New York Times yesterday lamenting the heaviness of British Christmas meals. I hope you have a sublime feast!

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