4 fantastic singers? 5 pretty good ones

So Il Trovatore, that opera where we have to believe that a mother threw the wrong baby in the fire, and then raised her enemy's son to destroy his biological brother. Well, yes, it is an opera, so there is always a certain amount of disbelief required, but, that's opera for you.

First of all, I have to say, this was a surprisingly even cast. There were no stand out bad performers the whole night. That also means of course, there were no stunningly good ones either (like Monserrat Caballe at the top) . Instead, we had a night of well sung, well acted, if not always thrilling opera.

This production was the Elke Neidhardt production that is shared between the various state opera companies here. It resets the opera to the Spanish Civil war, but never really tells you which side who is on. All you know (indeed, all you really need to know) is that Di Luna and Manrico are on opposite sides.) The sets consist of a series of grey walls that get rearranged from time to time. They all show signs of war damage, and get moved to indicate changes of location for each scene. They worked very effectively, especially coupled with the very effective moody lighting.

There were no obvious "regietheatre moments" that made you scream "what the?" but a mostly sensibly directed opera, that focused on telling the story clearly. Ok, so maybe the moment of gratuitous total male nudity with the arrival of the new recruits was not necessary, but it did lighten up the scene (and the supers were very pretty)

Now, to the performers, because, as is mythologised, this opera stands or falls on the four leads (I would argue five, but hey, who says singers can count?)

First off, when you get a notice on your seat that a singer has been swapped for health reasons, you normally sigh a little. Well, when I heard the Ruiz was swapped (admittedly a small role) I was quite pleased. My previous experience of the singer in question left me wondering why he had been cast. Instead, we had Sam Roberts-Smith, who I hope we hear a lot more of. As Ruiz, he sang only a little, but left us wanting to hear more, and liking what we heard. Why the other singer was cast in the first place still leaves me scratching my head, knowing his replacement was available at the time...

Now, frankly, Daria Masiero is no Monserrat Caballe (or for that matter, Angela Meade, or Latonia Moore) but she is a fine singer with a big voluptuous voice of the type needed. To be sure, I would prefer one both larger, prettier and better controlled, but we are talking dream casting vs affordable casting. For a company that cannot afford the A list singers, Daria is pretty good. No fluffed notes, nice even sound and plenty of power to bring to those exciting climaxes Verdi gives. To be sure, she does not sound as in control of her voice as Latonia Moore (or Angela Meade, who I have only heard via recordings) but there was nothing wrong with what she did. We are talking degrees, more the difference between something I consider acceptable, to something truly glorious. She was workmanlike would be my comment.

Likewise, Arnold Rawls. As the evening progressed, his voice definitely eased into the role, sounding less tight. Sometimes he sounded  not entirely comfortable in the role in the first act. But by the second act he was sounding truly heroic, his C on "Di quell piera" was something to behold, if a touch OTT for the purists. I say, if you have it like that, use it!!!!

The surprise of the evening for me was Michael Honeyman as the Count di Luna. This was the fourth time i have heard him recently, so you can understand why I was shocked when I heard him. I have always liked his voice, but I long to hear the voice that he has yet to become, instead of the smaller sound we have been getting. Well, somewhere between last year and this production, he has found that big sound. WOW! Suddenly, its like he had a big break through in vocal technique and the sound is much fuller, richer and just plain bigger. Im really looking forward to hearing what happens in the future now.

Our bass for the evening was of course, the reliable Richard Anderson as Ferrando. Quite why the captain of the guards became a priest in this production, I am not sure, but it did not detract too much from the story. Indeed, it only occurred to me later that he is not normally a priest. Too many Italian operas have priests that do everything they shouldn't I guess..

And finally, we had Milijana Nikolic as Azucena, the mother who threw her son on the fire by mistake, intending to throw the Count's brother. Previously, I have not been that impressed by her. This time I was convinced. Her Strida la vampa and the scene following with Manrico were stunning. In many respects that scene became the emotional centre of the opera in this performance.

And of course, as usual, the chorus sang well, swapping frequently from being soldiers to freedom fighters and back again.Im sure there was lots of men changing back stage in the wings…

So I will leave you with our tenor. Not perfect, but pretty damn good, and certainly worth paying for.

Ernani, from the Met, or, meet my new diva

Ok, first up. This was my first experience of Ernani. Sure, I knew a couple of the arias, and the basic story, and it was early-ish Verdi, but that was it. I had thus expected the strong choruses, florid vocal lines that require big voices, with a plot that belonged in a South American soap opera.

Well, that pretty much sums up the basics, I guess, so now, down to business. First, the sets in this production are stunning. The opening scene looked like the ruins of some old castle, with just some walls and a staircase up the side left. The next scene inside Silva's castle, featured a massive painting on one wall with a huge couch in front of it, massive doors at the back, with about ten steps up to it. The next act was outside at Silva's castle, again, on a massive staircase. Then the last two acts featured the same staircase with different things around it, the tomb of Charlemagne in act 3, which was then hidden by a wall, to make it Ernani's castle at the end.

You notice something common there? Yes, all huge sets, all featuring stairs used extensively throughout the opera. In fact, it was normal to have people singing on the stairs in each act. Now, I do not know about you, but I do not normally make it a habit of stopping and discussing the days events on stairs normally, but it does at least allow for a chorus to be spread so you can see them all, and they did look effective. It also made for attractive groupings of the leads, in ways that also helped disguise big height differences.

Now, I have to say, Marcello Giordani did leave me a bit underwhelmed in this role. As Ernani, or, Don Juan of Aragon, his is a serviceable tenor but not really great. A couple of times I noticed some hoarseness suggesting maybe he was just tired, but he really did not sound like he belonged on the same stage as some of the others performing.

Likewise, I found Dmitri Hvorostovsky somewhat underwhelming. Somehow he lacks the power and forcefulness I would expect of this role. The odd thing about that though, is he seemed much freer and more powerful vocally during his recites, as if he was trying to hold back in the arias and ensembles to produce a more beautiful tone. If so, it was not working, it just left me annoyed..

Now, on the other hand, Ferruccio Furlanetto proved once again, he is one of the best basses singing Verdi at the moment. His is a big dark bass voice that he uses expressively to good effect. If he sang the cabaletta after his act 1 aria slower than I expected or wanted, I tend to suspect it was our conductor Marco Amilliato, not the singer, who was responsible. I am not saying he is a bad conductor, just not a great one. Having said that, the current Met conductor problems are well known, and tonight's conductor is one of the ones who has been adding more duties because of it.

Now, to the undoubted star tonight, Angela Meade. The first thing that needs to be said here, is she has only been singing professionally for a handful of years. Indeed, her professional debut, was when she jumped in to this production, replacing an ailing Elvira, in 2008. Her singing was quite frankly amazing for someone with so few productions under her belt. I did not get any sense at any time she was ever under stress as she powered her way through Verdi's tangled lines. This is not a role you give to a performer for their debut, it is a role for a soprano at the height of her powers. That Angela can rise to the ocaision so well says something about her abilities, and then for her to outshine her colleagues at the same time says even more.

For make no mistake, there was no doubt who was tonight's star. She proved that not only does she belongs amongst such starry company, she vocally leaves them for dead. Once she grows as an actor to match her singing abilities, she will dominate the opera world like the singer who many already compare her to, Dame Joan Sutherland.