They only emerged fully onstage as members of an army in Act three (a striking reminder that the story takes place against the background of civil war). Bear in mind that Negrín also called the opera a “ghost story.” The male chorus looking like ghouls often sang through a slit in the side walls rather like denizens of a basement prison. Louis Désiré’s sets (newly built in 10 days apparently, after transport ships from Monaco were delayed from docking – another Covid casualty) highlighted this idea of imprisonment. Only Leonora…understands that love and living in the present are the only paths to follow…” This idea of being imprisoned by the past provided a uniquely clarifying focus. ‘Il trovatore’ is the weight of the past. In a director’s note, Francisco Négrin wrote that, “Il Trovatore” “tells us how the specters of our need for revenge (Azucena), of our regrets (Manrico) or our unquenched desires (Count di Luna) imprison us and kill us.
#LA OPERA CRACK#
Although “Il trovatore” is useful evidence in any argument that great music will encourage an audience to forgive absurdities in a plotline (note: Enrico Caruso’s crack that the only thing needed for a successful ‘Trovatore’ are the four greatest singers in the world), this production actually managed to make the plot plausible and worthy of consideration in itself. In his introductory remarks, Conlon pushed back against the customary ridiculing of ‘Trovatore’s plot. A few months ago, LA Opera offered a purely online presentation of Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex”, another video production worth re-watching if the opportunity ever arises. The camera work was so seamless that it took until the end to wonder how many camera positions there actually were (seven), to make the production seem so fluent.īear in mind that watching online meant sitting at a screen for four hours (if you include Music Director James Conlon’s introductory lecture), so the fact that those hours flashed by is testament to the success of this method of delivery.
Widzer and Director of Photography Kelly Travis provided a very satisfactory video experience.
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