Austin Lyric Opera - Il Trovatore, October 8, 2005 


How do you say "suxored" in Italian? 

I hope that this wasn't anyone's first trip to the opera. It was so bad the Austin American Statesman didn't review it, although they did print an article on the cursed aspects of the production a week or so ago. So people wouldn't get their hopes up. It was a tearful chronicle of tenors lost under cushions, sets ripped apart by polar bears, stage directors losing their sense of direction... Well, I made that last one up.
An illustration - Opening of third act. Soldiers playing dice on eve of battle, singing about kicking ass on the morn. If the picture in your head involves a rigid array of costumed fellows standing attention before a man sitting in a fancy chair, you win! Otherwise, like me, you lose!
The chorus sounded great, the orchestra sounded great, the lighting was marginally competent, the singing was uneven, and the acting was "old school" in the worse possible line. The Count di Luna was not motivated by his lust for Leonora, but a stronger, more unnatural urge - "Where do I stand?" I never thought I'd long after the rolling-around-on-the-floor school of stage direction of the ALO's recent past, yet there I was, sitting in one of the Bass' least comfortable seats, longing it.

Man, I hope there's some turnaround, cause I was looking forward to Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtnsk.  

Posted: Tue - October 11, 2005 at 07:48 PM           |

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