Strident la vampa!

Apparently one of the signs of my advancing age is that there are just not that many singers I want to listen to these days.This truth was borne out tonight when I attended a re-HD showing of Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Warner theatre in Torrington, CT. In previous years the Warner has shown live filmed operas from European opera houses that I have enjoyed very much. This is the first time they have dealt with the 'Live from the Met', or in this case, since it was filmed a while ago, 'Dead from the Met', series.

It opened with a commercial from the Bloomberg Co., followed by a treacaly introduction by my not favorite soprano.

Caruso is supposed to have said that the only thing you need for a production of Il Trovatore is having the world's four greatest singers. Apparently they were tied up tonight.


The Leonora of Sondra Radvanovsky had its moments, but most of the time her square shaped voice hung on the flat side of the pitch. When she went high she tuned it up and it could be quite beautiful. Unfortunately in Verdi, you don't spend all night at the top of your range.

Marcelo Alvarez as Manrico has a true Italian tenor voice. He can sail out the high notes with ease, in spite of taking very high, shoulder wrenching breaths. It is when he sings in mid-range at a mezzo-forte level that he swallows the sound. In the duet with Azucena in the last act he found a resonant pianissimo, probably because he had to match Dolora Zajick's amazing soft sound that is both sweet and resonant.

Speaking of Ms. Zajick, she has been singing this role at the Met for twenty-three years and certainly is in command of all its requirements. She has an odd way of dealing with her mid-range when singing with medium volume. She seems to maintain a Sherri Lewis technique. Her lips don't move. It's a little disconcerting because I wasn't sure if she was the one singing or not. When she goes higher or lower or louder, everything seems to work normally. It is an enormous voice that she can pare down to a whisper and still be heard perfectly. Go Dolora.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the Count di Luna has a remarkable voice which he is beginning to cover. Maybe this is a Russian baritone thing? I've heard this in others from that part of the world. He also is doing the Popeye thing when he sings high and loud: singing out of the side of his mouth. This looks like tension to me. It's too bad, because I don't think that he really has to do this.

I also like him because he has white hair!

 

I'm sorry to be such sour grapes about this performance but all of the singers in the cast have perfectly fine voices that they are not using to their fullest capacity. Dolora excepted.

For some reason the opera was placed by the stage director in the period of the Civil War. Huh? It had a very drab set that certainly didn't look like Spain, where it is supposed to take place. Maybe Appomattox?

I have heard this opera performed wonderfully at the Met years ago and wish I could remember the cast. Oh well, as I said, I have a hard time with singers these days. Especially when they waste wonderful instruments by doing dumb things with them.

As the story goes, a man said to Jasha Heifetz, 'That Strad makes beautiful sounds'. Heifetz held it up to his ear and said, 'Really? I don't hear anything.'

It's nice to have a Strad, but you have to learn how to play it. Replace 'Strad' with 'Voice'.