IL TROVATORE in Piacenza - Review

by William Fratti –Lights and Shadows, assuming that “You don't have to think about being successful, but you have to think about doing well” –

The new production of Il Trovatore by the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza leaves its mark on an enthusiastic and excited audience. It's nice to see a hall alive to such an extent and the fervor is more than justified and well placed on a show that, overall, has given emotions, which is the primary purpose of this art. Nonetheless, it is not without its shadows.

The staging by Stefano Monti, assisted on the sets by Allegra Bernacchioni and on the lights by Fiammetta Baldiserri, is well done and could have given something more if the pillars had moved more and those structures on wheels had been avoided rather than melodrama they make you think of a hardware store. The metal bins are also negligible. And sincerely embarrassing are the red strings, now a distinctive trait of Monti's productions. Direction here well centered in some overall pages, but reduced to only the positions in many solo parts.

Matteo Beltrami is the good conductor ever – the liaison with the stage is very effective – and he is well followed by the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, but it should be noted that the sound is often strong and the rendering is spare in chromatisms. Great horn work.

Lights and shadows also in singing, starting from the assumption that, as a very great premature death said, one must not think of being successful, but one must think of doing well. Another important assumption lies in the preparation for Verdi's singing, which has always been a victim of the great popularity of the works of the Swan. Until the last century we got used to a tradition that represented the models and tastes of the time. So far, nothing to complain. In the new century, an ever less numerous and less popular, but more refined and pretentious audience, has also led performers to increasingly want to respect philology and the difference between styles. Today, thanks to Italian and foreign schools that have worked well - and we hope will continue to produce their results in the years to come - above all to the action of excellent musicians, we have and enjoy a long crowd of excellent Baroque and Rossini singers. But Greens? And Puccini? Precisely because of the great favor of their masterpieces, it has never been thought of going to school, but everything has always been left in the hands of the fashion of the moment.

In this production, the only one that fully respects the score is Anna Maria Chiuri's Azucena, who gives us a real Verdi singing lesson. Every word is intoned and phrased with care, following all the indications provided by Verdi and matured over many years of career, not caring - if we may say so - of colleagues and the orchestra that sometimes seem to dominate her, since her professionalism does not make her bend to a sensationalist execution, but induces it more to produce itself in delicate pianissimi or dramatic accents, sometimes desperate, sometimes pathetic, where and when necessary; or where and when it is indicated in the score.

Angelo Villari, Manrico, is undoubtedly a very generous singer, a tenor gifted with polish and an excellent squillo. In some moments his voice touches emotional chords and the pyre's request for an encore is fully deserved. Likewise Ernesto Petti, Conte di Luna, is a baritone with a beautiful cantabile timbre and he too receives the appropriate applause in the open scene. But where are the colors for both? The accents? The expressiveness? Both sing almost the entire part in forte or medium forte and have very little respect for the expected dynamics. But during the musical rehearsals where was the conductor?

A separate discussion for Chiara Isotton's Leonora, who unquestionably tries to phrase, but the result is rather mixed. Beautiful voice that marries perfectly with the cantabile of the fourth act, but is less firm in the first aria and in the character parts. She almost looks like a young singer who is still looking for the right interpretation for the role, but that shouldn't be the case.

Good performance by Giovanni Battista Parodi, who brings a well-defined Ferrando to the stage.

Ilaria Alida Quilico's Ines did very well.