For now my tidal wave of blog posts are done. Unless I feel the mood to blog about opera between now and March, you will be left without a post until then. Had to get all that information out of my head though before they ran together even more. The website at Seattle Opera was particularly helpful with the memory process. Sadly I am a very visual person and seeing the set pictures often helped me remember what was going on in the opera. Until next time!
Since this is the latest opera I have seen my memory is freshest with it. You may actually get some real information with this one. Il Trovatore is fantastic. It also has an incredibly recognizable song in it which is the video above. Check it out. You may find your toes even tapping along. (Hang on until about 1:20 seconds)
Pros: Wonderful chorus numbers. Hopefully you will have found the anvil chorus to be as familiar to you as I did. Particularly I enjoyed the aria's by Leonora that hit the lower half of her vocal register. They were masterfully done and I get the impression that while it is difficult to keep a high note from breaking the low notes are difficult to project throughout the entire opera house. I keep reminding myself that mics are not used.
Cons: The gypsy lady is weird. And unless you read the back story portion in the opera program you may have found yourself a bit confused. They seem to glaze over some of the details (at least the subtitling did) I also found the vocal performance of Manrico to not be as strong as I wished. Sometimes he seemed over powered by Count di Luna.
Finally, finally, finally I am in the current season! I am so excited to have three operas by Verdi this year. It is quite neat to be able to compare the different operas in such a close time period.
Pros: Wonderful story line and singing. I couldn't help but want everything to work out for these characters. The singing was wonderful.
Cons: Really really did not care for the dad in this opera. Of course I wasn't supposed to be thrilled with him so I guess in that matter he did a good job.
