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Performing Arts

FLC welcomes another season of MET operas

Simulcasts open Saturday with tragedy ‘Trovatore’
Yonghoon Lee as Manrico and Anna Netrebko as Leonora in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.”

Despite an absurd, incoherent and convoluted plot, Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” has wowed audiences since it opened in 1853. It was a huge success in Rome, then London and Paris. A year later, Verdi’s lush Spanish tragedy opened in New York where Enrico Caruso sang Manrico, the troubadour of the title.

The work continues to be better known for its music than the melodrama on which it was based and has captivated people for 162 years

The MET Live in HD opens its 2015-16 simulcast season Saturday with a revival of Verdi’s opera. “Il Trovatore,” which begins at 10:55 a.m. in the Vallecito Room in the Fort Lewis College Student Union. There are plenty of seats, and it’s first-come, first-found. Bring a thermos or buy coffee down the hall and settle in for the two-hour, 45-minute live-streamed production.

If you’ve never seen an opera before, you’ll probably recognize the Anvil Chorus, that sweaty, hammering evocation of repetitive work. Or you may swoon at the drippingly romantic arias. The plot is another matter.

Verdi based the opera on a roughly contemporary Spanish melodrama, “El Trobador.” Blame the playwright, Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez, for a loopy backstory.

The 1836 potboiler unspools an improbable tale of two brothers, one destined for power and the other for early death. It also has a love triangle and was set in a period of civil war. Revenge drives the whole story.

Set originally in the 15th century Kingdom of Aragon, Verdi’s opera keeps to the play’s improbable plot. But the MET has updated the story to Spain’s war against Napoleon, 1808-14. The sets and costuming suggest Goya.

Be prepared, you’ll hear the backstory twice. The first occurs in Act I, told by Captain Ferrando (bass Stefan Kocán), about the old Count di Luna and his two sons. The second version occurs later sung by Azucena, the unstable daughter of an angry gypsy. Years earlier, the old woman was burned at the stake for bewitching the count’s son. Her last words were: “Avenge me.” And therein lies the plot.

Verdi’s original title was “The Gypsy’s Revenge.” That’s a better key to the action than the existing title, which translates as “troubador” and is Manrico’s nickname. He’s also a lover, revolutionary and important relative of the old and young counts..

An incoherent plot underpinning gorgeous music is the stuff of opera.

Verdi’s work has spawned many comic parodies. Groucho Marx and Danny Kaye enacted television skits to knowing audiences. Saturday Night Live has also succumbed to the tantalizing fruits of parody.

The Met production features tenor Yonghoon Lee as Manrico, soprano Anna Netrebko as Leonora, and baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the villainous young Count di Luna. Mezzo Dolora Zajick reprises the wickedly colorful role of crazed daughter, Azucena.

The troubadour will sing his beautiful serenades. The gypsies will linger in the mountains. Palace intrigue will reign right up to the opera’s bloody ending.

By grand opera standards, “Il Trovatore” runs a short two hours and 45 minutes. Sung in Italian, the libretto will be clearly delivered in English subtitles.

jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, art historian and arts journalist.



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