Il trovatore (2002 TV Movie) User Reviews

Mostly a good all round production

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 20 July 2011]

As far as Il Trovatore productions go, I prefer the 1978 with Domingo, Kabaivanska, Cappucilli and Cossotto and the 1988 with Pavarotti, Marton, Milnes and Zajick productions over this Il Trovatore. However this Il Trovatore is excellent mostly.

The opera is a favourite, although the story is complicated at times, the music is phenomenal and some of Verdi's best music, not just the Anvil Chorus, Soldier's Chorus and Di Quella Pira but also my favourite Il Balen.

What I loved most was the authentic setting and costumes and the video directing and picture quality did them perfect justice. The orchestra throughout are superb, and while occasionally a little fast Rozzi's conducting is commanding.

The performances are fine and are served well by the good acoustics. The chorus do a great job and are well balanced. If there was one performance I wasn't entirely sure about it was Jose Cura. He looks the part and commands the stage very well, but there are times where his lovely baritonal-like tenor voice is rather wobbly, particularly in Desserto Sulla Terra.

Veronica Villaroel is a very convincing Leonora with her pianissimos especially effective. The best of the evening though are Dmitri Hvorostovsky as a Count that is both menacing and nuanced making for a beautifully sung and effective performance and Yvonne Naef who is a powerful Azucena both in acting and vocals.

In conclusion, mostly good all round. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Get it for Hvorostovsky

[ashtonlee-writer · 8/10 · 8 May 2018]

There are certainly stronger casts out there, but everyone is at least good, and Hvorostovsky was one of the best Di Lunas of the early 21st century. He sings like an angel here and he makes the Count more than just your typical baritone villain, he shows his vulnerable side. One might wonder why Leonora doesn't dump the tenor and goes for him. For comparison watch the Met's 2011 production - he just got even better with experience. The gods were truly cruel to take him so soon.

Not that Cura isn't a charismatic Manrico, looking a big like Che Guevara, but he lacks his brother's elegance and style (and his high C game is... nonexistent).

Yvonne Naef is a more youthful Azucena, which is more accurate than the usual old hag portrayal - 15 years ago she was a young mother, so she's only mid-late 30s. She makes a good impression, perhaps not the force-of-nature approach you can see from Barbieri or Cossotto, but she is believeable, especially inacting.

Veronica Villaroel is probably the weakest link in the cast - not bad, but not very memorable either.

Tómas Tómasson is an unusually strong and sinister Ferrando - certainly not some old guy who is just there to explain the plot, and he has a menacing voice.

What I love the most about this staging is the ending - the onstage execution makes for much better emotional impact.

One great performance

[bob998 · 8/10 · 2 August 2022]

Somebody said that to put on a memorable production of Il Trovatore, you needed the four best singers in the world. That's not entirely true. Here you have one indisputably great singer--Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the Elvis of opera as one newspaper called him--and two very good ones in Jose Cura and Yvonne Naef. The soprano is just adequate. Sets and costumes are appropriate, the orchestra sounds fine (but will we ever hear an Anvil Chorus with a real anvil?). In 1969 RCA assembled a dream cast of Leontyne Price, Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes and Fiorenza Cossotto for an LP recording--if that had been filmed it would stand as the benchmark video for this opera.