Il trovatore, 23 January 2001

 

New National Theatre Opera House

 

Cast: Yoshimi Tatsuno (Leonora), Dario Volonte 23 (Manrico), Yasuo Horiuchi (di Luna), Elizabetta Fiorillo (Azucena), Kang-Liang Peng (Ferrando), Satomi Kano (Ines), Satoshi Chubachi (Ruiz), Shigeki Tani (vecchio zingaro), Kazunori Ikemoto (messo),

 

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, New National Theatre and Nikikai Choruses, Daniel Oren (conductor), Alberto Fassini (director) William Orlandi (design), Mutsumi Isono (lighting)

 

 

The outstanding Tokyo debut of 2000 was that of the young Argentine tenor Dario Volonté in the Fujiwara Opera production of Lucia di Lammermoor (14, 16 January). Almost exactly a year later he returned to give two performances as Manrico in the New National Theatre production of Il trovatore. He will be returning to Tokyo in August to sing Calaf, the role he will be recording for Decca with Chailly in 2002. Volonte was listed with the second cast - the first being Vladimir Galouzine (Manrico), Fiorenza Cedolins (Leonora) Ambrogio Maestri (seen in the La Scala Forza in Tokyo in September) as di Luna and Elizabetta Fiorillo (Azucena) - but sang with Fiorillo on 23 January.

 

In his own words, Volonté is a 'lyric with dramatic accents, with force'. A voice similar in weight and timbre to Björling, but with rather more warmth and perhaps less studied elegance than the great Swede. He has sung Manrico a number of times in the past, but the role evidently stretches him more than Edgardo. On the other hand it probably reveals more of his personality as a singer. His Manrico was certainly less even and less polished than his Edgardo, but he has an almost Freni-like ability to take a phrase so beautifully that you remember it for the rest of the performance. He was at his best in 'Ah si, ben mio' rather than 'Di quella pira' which immediately follows it. The staging at this point was particularly alienating (rapid despatch of Leonora and transformation of wedding bed into platform for Manrico's big vengeance aria) which may have contributed to the general impression.

 

Volonté's best scenes were with Fiorillo, an Azucena with strong presence, clear diction, good projection and the necessary panache. Yasuo Horiuchi was a strong, smooth but somewhat uninvolved di Luna, Yoshimi Tatsuno was a rather plummy Leonora. Daniel Oren conducted the work in a straightforward, workmanlike manner that somehow suggested that he was not expecting great things from his band.

 

The New National Theatre has enjoyed its fair share of criticism for its production shopping adventures, ever since the Zeffirelli Aida and Wolfgang Wagner Lohengrin that first launched the house in 1997, but this Trovatore, wherever it came from, marked a new low. Whereas the recent Kruschev-era style Eugene Onegin from the Bolshoi was at least endearing in its naivety, this Trovatore was just dismal. The whole opera was enclosed within wood-panelled walls decorated in relief with square geometric patterns - a set that would have worked equally as well (or as badly) for Ballo, Forza or Don Carlo - an all-purpose middle Verdi set.

 

Much use was made of steep ramps, enormous projections of the moon, and clumps of some tall feathery exotic foliage. Following the choruses the singers assumed balletic friezes and were drawn off, conveyor-belt style. The gypsies were depicted as art treasure looters, with the chorus beating gold vessels on the anvils. When Azucena was captured, she was tied to the wheel of a canon seemingly five metres in height. Why it needed to be quite so large wasn't clear. So that 99.9 percent of audience would get the phallic allusion? So that the mezzo could be cartwheeled across the stage? On the polite stage of the NTT she was untied, the gun was moved and then she was tied up again.

 

However despite everything else, what really killed the production was the garish lighting. Whenever the word burning came up the whole stage was bathed in red light. This cliché was repeated with diminishing significance throughout the course of the evening.

 

 

Simon Holledge