Verdi - Il Trovatore / Cura, Hovorostovsky, Villarroel, Naef, Rizzi, Covent Garden

I thoroughly enjoyed the masterful singing by the 4 principal characters, each one as good as the next. Inspired interpretations.When my parents took me to see the opera as a child, I was impressed by the anvil chorus which is sorely lacking in this production. That is what happens when the original 15th century is moved to the 19th century. So much does not make sense. In the 19th century people were not burned alive.The costumes and the staging were fine but not as Verdi conceived it, based on Gutierrez’s famous play. But it is the singing which takes center stage and a better cast could not have been assembled.The sound on the disc is excellent and the technicians have given a presence to the voices. The orchestra was well balanced and expertly conducted by Carlos Rizzi.Highly recommended for the superb singing by the talented cast.

A truly wonderful rendition of Verdi's tragic opera.This presentation is from the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden with conductor Carlo Rizzi and is performed before a live audience. The stars of this opera are Jose Cura (Manrico), Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Count di Luna), Yvonne Naef (Azucena) and Veronica Villarroel (Leonora).The casting...superb; the acting is committed and as passionate as anyone could wish for in this dramatic work by Verdi. The voice qualities are superior for all the principals, with the characters of Hvorostovsky and Villarroel leading the way.The loss of one star (really 1/2 star if it was available) in my rating was as a result of a few things that niggled me during the performance ... for instance-The sets, although well done, (and undoubtedly a lot of time and effort went into their construction) were cold and grim in their appearance: then add to this, the effect of the darkness of nighttime scenes and you had an opera where it seemed impossible to find a ray of brightness throughout the entire work.-The only subtitled language on the DVD is English. It would have been nice to at least to have the option of following the opera in Italian.-And finally (and a really picky point here) but one I feel obliged to mention because once I noticed this, I just could not get the idea out of my mind: that being, the officers costume worn by Count di Luna reminded me of something that would be seen on the doorman of a fancy New York hotel. I'm sorry, but I just had to get that out.All in all a solid Il Trovatore. To me, there were a few minor distractions, but the great acting and singing would allow me to highly recommend this work.

This performance was filmed on May 3, 2002 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was Mr. Hvorostovsky's first outing as Count di Luna. What a Count di Luna he was. His singing of di Luna made the usual baritone villain come alive with such passion.(Hint: the best sung cabaletta of the night was not "Di quella pira", but "Per me ora fatale". Masculinity personified.) Nowadays nobody can convey complicated emotions through singing more eloquently than Mr. Hvorostovsky. It was so evident in this performance. Just for this reason alone, this dvd is a must. But the dvd has much more to offer. There was a very well sung but rather restrained Azucena by Yvonne Naef. Her voice was strong and beautiful. Ms. Villarroel got points for her efforts. As for Mr. Cura, his vision for Manrico was "Latino macho man". Well, Mr. Cura succeeded just as that. He forgot that Manrico was also a poet. Even after countless viewings of the dvd, I still cannot control the urge to shake Leonora to her senses. Maestro Rizzi's tempi were on the fast side, so it made the opera sound more like a fast paced action "movie". Overall, the opera was very exciting to watch. (Expect some little surprises in the production.) I showed it to people who did not watch operas and the responses were very positive. The quality of the dvd is excellent. Both the sound and pictures are very clear. Of course, it comes with the extra features. Bravo to BBC-Opus Arte for an excellent job bringing this dvd to us. I hope someday someone will produce a dvd of "Eugene Onegin" with Mr. Hvorotovsky as the cad. Please do this soon before Mr. Hvorostovsky moves on to all those juicy Verdi roles.

The singing and staging are great but the curtain calls should be at the end, having them at the end of every scene spoils the atmosphere and breaks up the narrative.

Need to convert from US NTSC to MP4. I couldn't with VLC

Two of my favourite singers in one production... this is one I'll grab in the event of a fire. Prompt delivery

I must say Thoroughly enjoyed this performance the singing the production thank you

brilliant pairing