Jealousy, obsession and ancient rivalry, churning around like toxic vapours, make Il trovatore one of Verdi’s most dangerous and combustible works. It requires exceptional singers – chorus, as well as soloists – of rare stamina and virtuosity. The story is muddling but passions are stark and raw. In a new staging for the Royal Opera House, conducted by Antonio Pappano, the director Adele Thomas has deftly lassoed the work’s wildness into a new coherence and invited us into a parallel world of storytelling. Leave behind preconceptions and rationality and travel with her, or be frustrated.
With designs by Annemarie Woods and choreography by Emma Woods, the production – first seen in Zurich in 2021 – finds echoes in the hellish fantasies of Hieronymus Bosch, as well as in the dark materials and omnipresent daemons beloved of Philip Pullman. The approach is fresh, highly professional and nothing like any other Trovatore you might have encountered. Pappano encourages the richest, most melancholy sounds from the orchestra – that ominous bass drum and timpani roll at the start; the ever loquacious woodwind, notably clarinets. Equally, he allows the heaving oompahs of the Anvil Chorus, one of the work’s many familiar tunes, to surge and swing with gusto.
