Il Trovatore, Opera San Jose, Feb. 14 2013

It was lots of fun preparing for Il Trovatore—there is so much wonderful music in this opera! Granted, some of it doesn’t quite fit; the music for the Soldier’s Chorus at the beginning of Act 3 sounds as though the soldiers ought to be doing the vaudeville trick of swinging one leg in front of the other. But as Ernest Newman wrote, Verdi’s mistakes are the mistakes of a genius. Kip Cranna of San Francisco Opera describes it as a “double-A” opera, one that is guaranteed to be a great success at the box office. (The other double-A Verdi operas are Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Aida. Beyond that, make up your own list. You can start with “ABC”—Aida, Boheme, Carmen.)

The set was simple but effective, though architecturally unsound. Downstage, massive square stone-and-mortar pillars on the far left and far right formed the posts of a post-and-lintel construction; the lintel was also of stone and mortar. Given the width of the California Theatre stage, such a construction would not survive long in real life. But that’s just a quibble for the engineers in the audience. This post-and-lintel design was repeated upstage, and a third identical structure was positioned mid-stage. There was also a stone-and-mortar construction of steps, rising gently to a height of about 5 feet over the course of 20 or 25 feet; stagehands pushed these steps around to various positions for the various scenes. In the back, we saw a silhouette of a mountain range. In back of the mountain range, there was either a gigantic full moon (displayed whenever the Count di Luna (get it?) was in the scene) or reddish clouds, evoking the burning of Azucena’s mother at the stake. For the scenes that took place inside, such as the interior of the Castellor fortress or the prison cell  in Aliafera castle, the back of the stage was blacked out.

Our cast:

Manrico, the troubador: Alexander Boyer

Leonora, with whom he is in love: Cecelia Violetta Lopez

Count di Luna, mortal foe of Manrico: Zachary Altman

Azucena, the baby-burner: Nicole Birkland Rebecca Krouner

Ferrando, the captain of the guard: Silas Elash Matthew Anchel

Conductor: David Rohrbaugh

Director: Brad Dalton

We were disappointed to find an insert in the program that announced that Silas Elash would not be singing Ferrando, but that the part would be taken by the Ferrando from the “other” cast. Then, at 8:00, general manager Larry Hancock come on stage to announce that Nicole Birkland would be replaced by the Azucena from the “other” cast. An audible sigh went up from the audience—Nicole had received a rave review in the San Jose Mercury-News for her portrayal of Azucena. But such a sigh was undeserved, as Rebecca Krouner delivered a winning, very physical performance of her own. Matthew Anchel, substituting for Silas Elash,  sang well enough, but he’s not Silas. The chorus and orchestra distinguished themselves. Overall, maybe a beta.