In review: from around the world: Paris.(International ... Il Trovatore)(Opera Review)

The November 15 performance of the Opera National's new production of Verdi's Il Trovatore began with angry scenes at the Bastille. Star tenor Roberto Alagna was indisposed, but the usual custom of posting an announcement at the entrance of the theater was ignored on this occasion. Only once inside the auditorium did the audience learn that the role of Manrico was to be sung by Austrian tenor (of Russian origin) Victor Afanasenko. This prompted protests and calls for reimbursement, and for a while it looked as if conductor Maurizio Benini would be unable to begin the performance. Only when Dolora Zajick strode purposefully onstage for the opening scene of Act I was order restored.

Azucena's unscripted entrance at the beginning of the opera was the first of a number of gratuitous touches in Francesca Zambello's production. Although Azucena's story is the strongest narrative force in the work, Verdi certainly would have provided thematically relevant music for any entrance for her. The Gypsy's exit in Act III was the evening's most spectacular moment: Zajick was strapped to the wheel of a canon and trundled off like a larger-than-life Catherine wheel. Perhaps the idea was to suggest primitive violence, but the audience reacted with laughter, as well as with applause for the singer's circus courage. Admittedly, Trovatore poses problems of sustained dramatic credibility outside the individual numbers, but Zambello's production found no answers. Mainly through Sue Willington's costume designs, the time period was (rather vaguely) pushed up to the Spanish Civil War. The set was dominated by a red cross and depicted a scrap-metal yard, complete with a railway track, a feature whose symbolism long has been played out. These designs were in part the work of the late Maria Bjornson, finished by her assistant, Adrian Linford. However, the use of different playing levels, linked by sloping decorative elements, the inevitable ladders and the careful placing of the chorus seemed systematic and uninspired. Only the final scene, ...