We saw Trovatore this Saturday night (September 19) -- it might be the only time we buy tickets this year, though I hope to see some dress rehearsals. We hope the people at the Ball Park enjoyed it as much as we did.
We saw three International Treasures sing, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Stephanie Blythe and the truly phenomenal Sondra Radanovsky. Her arias brought both Sal and I to memories of the days when we had season tickets in the 70's and 80's and saw (heard) the likes of Leontyne Price, Placido Domingo, Marilyn Horne, Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballe! She was just magnificent and her soaring "D'amor sull'ali rosee" brought tears to our eyes. Hvorostovsky was wonderful too in his signature aria, "Il Balen". We'd heard he was having voice problems, but we couldn't see (hear) it.
The staging was fine, but the costumes were iffy. Stephanie Blythe certainly didn't look like a gypsy -- no bangles, no earrings, no black stuff. She looked more than an amiable washerwoman who had come in from a production about the French Revolution. Marco Berti was good, but couldn't they have tarted him up a bit? A girdle, dark hair -- I know he's chubby, but when Leonora throws her life away for Manrico when sexy, virile, exciting Count De Luna is standing there radiating excitement (Hvorostovsky) it makes you wonder if she doesn't have a screw loose.
The fixed curtain/scrim (don't know what you call it) was wonderful with a huge copy of I think a Goya masterpiece of tortured, twisted faces.
I have included links to a couple of magnificent Youtube arias. It would be worth it to get a great audio system for your computer with woofer, and a good big screen. You might never go back to TV!!!
http://tinyurl.com/ngt4my Radanovsky sings "D'amor sull'ali rosee"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81z1YzH_994&feature=related
Radanovsky and Hvorostovsky, last act aria
Monday, September 21, 2009
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