Theater
IL TROVATORE
Presented by Nashville Opera April 10 & 12 at TPAC’s Andrew Jackson Hall
Il Trovatore, Giuseppe Verdi’s 1853 opera concerning ill-fated love and violent encounters between a royal family and a band of gypsies, is just the kind of action-packed extravaganza that Nashville Opera artistic director John Hoomes revels in. “It’s Braveheart, but they sing,” Hoomes says. The production closes out the company’s 2007-8 season.
The setting is medieval Spain, where gypsy warriors clash with the army of Count Di Luna. “The directing challenge is communicating to an audience what’s going on,” Hoomes says. “The opera has a convoluted plot with a mysterious backstory. But Il Trovatore definitely doesn’t lack for drama.”
The opera is distinguished by impassioned arias, duets and trios. Its stirring diminished chords and rolling timpani should also challenge the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, under the helm of returning conductor Mark Flint, who has a solid background in both Italian and French opera.
On its surface, Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) is conventional operatic romanticism at its best. Yet it was written in the incredibly fertile period of 1851-53, during which Verdi also produced Rigoletto and La Traviata and was in fact on the path to innovation.
“Verdi was a transitional composer for Italian opera,” Hoomes says. “Il Trovatore is more experimental, one of the key transitional pieces. Verdi was aware that he was creating something different and special, moving away from the familiar bel canto style, with its very exposed arias in which the orchestra almost drops out completely while the voice soars over top. Here he was focusing on developing the drama more.”
Still, your stars need serious chops. The great Caruso himself facetiously proclaimed that Il Trovatore is easy to produce, adding, “All you need are the best singers in the world.”
“You’ve got to be ready to throw it down,” Hoomes affirms about the physical challenges. “There’s no time for rest. Il Trovatore is one of the top operas for audiences, and it’s a workout for everybody. It’s bel canto on steroids. It’s extremely difficult to sing.”
A Treasure Trovatore Tenor Dongwon Shin, soprano Laquita Mitchell and baritone Lester Lynch
Accordingly, the director has gathered together five principal vocalists who blend youth and experience with booming talent and diversity to boot. In the role of Count Di Luna for the third time in his career is African American baritone and Ohio native Lester Lynch, a Juilliard opera school grad. His sworn enemy, Manrico, is played by South Korean tenor Dongwon Shin, reprising a role he has performed once previously. Also bringing prior experience to their roles are mezzo-soprano Jessie Raven (in her Nashville Opera debut) as Azucena, the vengeful gypsy woman, and bass Gustav Andreassen as Ferrando, whose essential opening aria presages the plot complications that hold the audience in thrall to the opera’s final moments.
Making her Nashville Opera debut in the role of main love interest Leonora is African American soprano Laquita Mitchell, a Brooklyn native. Only three years into her professional career, Mitchell has sung with the Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera and New York City Opera.
“Laquita has a big career going,” says Hoomes, adding that she comes to Nashville fresh from a recent engagement as Musetta in La Boheme with the Los Angeles Opera, under the baton of maestro Placido Domingo.
One of Il Trovatore’s more familiar musical pieces is the “Anvil Chorus.” With its clanking percussion effects, it’s a raucous, full-bodied choral exercise that introduces us to the gypsies. “These are not your pretty Carmen gypsies,” says Hoomes. “This is a nasty, warring faction.” The 40-member Nashville Opera Chorus will contribute to the ensemble vocals.
Hoomes is committed to edgier staging—for this show he’s hired three professional swordsmen, whose fight choreography is designed by local actor and stage combat veteran David Wilkerson. “Traditionally, the soldiers chorus is a stand-and-sing chorus,” says Hoomes. “But our fighters do a ritualistic sword dance. It’s kind of like putting a ballet into the opera.”
Written in four acts, Il Trovatore will be performed in two, with a running time, including intermission, of approximately 145 minutes. It’s Nashville Opera’s second staging of the piece, the first harking back all the way to 1987.
Hoomes counsels Nashville audiences to stay alert for the opera’s denouement. “It’s a swashbuckling and rather sordid tale, with all this great vocal music, and then Verdi wraps it all up in less than a minute,” he says. “It’s a huge crowd-pleaser.”
Opera news
Nashville Opera has announced its 2008-9 season, which starts Oct. 10 with two performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Following are Sigmund Romberg’s operetta The Student Prince (Nov. 22, 23 and 25), Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, with a holiday concert (Dec. 9), and Puccini’s La Boheme (April 17-18, 2009). The opera’s educational touring show, set for early ’09, is Mozart’s Magic Flute.
A gala weekend celebrating the opening of the company’s Noah Liff Opera
Center in Sylvan Park will commence with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on
April 30, 2009.
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