Il Trovatore

The clanging of the Anvil Chorus may be the most instantly recognizable moment in Verdi's classic 1853 opera, but despite its absurdly complicated plot (gypsy curses, infants switched at birth, brothers battling over the same woman, deaths by poison and burning at the stake, all set against a backdrop of civil war), Il Trovatore remains one of the master's most popular thanks to a succession of red-blooded arias and ensembles that Caruso once said required nothing but the four greatest singers in the world to do them justice. This 2016 production from the Macerata Opera Festival hardly boasts such a quartet, but the two female leads—Enkelejda Shkosa as the vengeful gypsy Azucena, and Anna Pirozzi as the beautiful but doomed Leonora—are both exceptionally fine. The men—Piero Pretti as the titular troubadour (and rebel leader) and Marco Caria as his brother the duke—are serviceable but just not in the same league. Daniel Oren conducts the company orchestra with passion, while director Francisco Negrin uses the wide but shallow stage of the Sferisterio outdoor stadium intelligently, deftly blending past and present scenes. The sets are spare (two banks of tables) and the costumes are almost uniformly black, but both serve to enhance the mood of grim fatalism, while the use of fire as a motif adds flashes of brilliance. Other DVD and Blu-ray versions boast greater star power and visual splendor, but this one is overall a musically impressive take on this repertory warhorse. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and PCM stereo on Blu-ray, this is a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)