✭✭✭✭✩

by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Stephen Lawless

Canadian Opera Company, Hummingbird Centre, Toronto

March 31-April 17, 2005

The Canadian Opera Company’s latest production of Il Trovatore boasted a powerful, well-matched quartet of principals who forcefully, if not always subtly, communicated the work’s wide range of emotions.  As Manrico, Russian Mikhail Agafonov deployed his enormous, ringing tenor and seemingly inexhaustible lung power.  In his finest moment he tossed off “Di quella pira” with rousing vigor and sang its final two high C’s without a hint of strain.  His prime difficulty in past appearances here as Calaf and Gustavus was in musical and dramatic expressiveness.  As Manrico he paid greater attention to dynamics and sang “Ah sì, ben mio” with real feeling.  He has clearly worked hard to overcome the impression he can give of impassivity.

Hungarian soprano Eszter Sümegi as Leonora has no such difficulties.  Her previous appearances here as Tosca, Giorgetta, and Mimi have made her an audience favorite.  Her voice was rich and lustrous, her shading subtle and her coloratura effortless.  She faltered only on the very lowest notes.  While at first she seemed rather distant, her characterization grew steadily in commitment and depth, culminating in “D’amor sull’ali rosee” where the repeated plaint, “Le pene del mio cor,” became more heart-rending with each iteration.  As directed by Stephen Lawless, Sümegi revealed in Leonora’s attraction to the troubadour a more complex psychology than usual combining a love of risk with a fascination with death.

Russian mezzo-soprano Irina Mishura reprised the role of Azucena, which she sang in Trovatore’s last appearance here in 1999.  Then she threw herself so completely into the role the results were electrifying.  Now she rather more obviously was performing the character than possessed by it.  Her voice was still strong though not as firm as before and did not always avoid shrillness at the top. 

American baritone Daniel Sutin threw himself into the role of the Conte di Luna from the very start.  His singing was muscular but nimble and his characterization strong.  Under Lawless, the count became less a stock villain than a man driven over the brink by jealousy.

The production, co-owned by the COC, LA Opera and the Washington National Opera, with its high-walled sets and sword-studded foreground designed by Benoît Dugardyn, well captured the atmosphere of concealment, claustrophobia and ever-present danger.  Richard Bradshaw led the COC orchestra in an account of white-hot intensity.  His tempi were often brisk, especially in the Anvil Chorus, which here under Lawless’s fluid direction became a series of deadly sword fights, the clangs of the sword blades chiming with the anvil strikes.      

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Opera News 2005-06.

Photo: Eszter Sümegi as Leononra. ©2005 Michael Cooper.