2/15/2023 0 Comments Seattle opera il trovatore![]() Double-disadvantaged as a woman and an itinerant ethnic minority, she is ironically given more agency and complexity than “respectable” women. Jacob Lucas photo c/o Seattle OperaĪzucena, the “gypsy witch” is treated both worse and better. (How dumb does she have to be to think Di Luna will let the troubadour go when he already tried to kidnap her from the convent?) Nice girls exist solely for the benefit of their man. Even in the one choice she’s given, her virtue trumps her intelligence. Except for her Gethsemane scene in Act Four, where she resolves to trade her life for her lover’s, she exists only as a plot device. Il Trovatore’s Leonora is a prime example. Alas, my beloved bel canto composers are among the worst offenders, with nary a soprano surviving to the final chorus, always dying for love. I’ve said it before and it bears repeating. At the same time, you can’t help but think of the current global shift toward authoritarianism, a certain orange-headed elected, and the way Verdi’s “gypsies” are treated like Syrian refugees. From the casual violence of Di Luna’s soldiers, to Di Luna’s sociopathic view of everyone as objects and obstacles, to Azucena’s infanticide and subsequent mental instability, Il Trovatore paints a world you don’t want to live in. It’s really Game of Thrones-level twisted. But as I sat in the auditorium watching Count Di Luca toss the ashes of her dead mother and son onto the bound Azucena’s head, I thought, “This story is really fucked up.” Jacob Lucas photo c/o Seattle Opera I don’t know if I’ve grown in empathy or if Wallace’s direction brings the sadism to the fore. I remembered it being delightfully campy in a Dickensian “everyone is connected in secret ways and everything that happens today is directly linked to the sins of 30 years prior” kind of way. ![]() The plot of Il Trovatore is mighty convoluted, so I won’t summarize it here. We were both excited to see how this new production directed by local artist Dan Wallace Miller compares to our earlier experiences. Il Trovatore was the first opera that my opera buddy ever saw – she saw Seattle Opera’s mid-90’s production. ![]() I saw it then, but I wasn’t blogging yet, so I don’t have a record of my impressions, and my memories are a little vague. The last time Seattle Opera performed Verde’s Il Trovatore was in 2010.
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