Il Trovatore (Houston Grand Opera), February 4, 2005, Wortham Theater Center's Brown Hall

I know the first thing about opera, but that's about it, so don't expect much of a critique of the singing. Houston Grand Opera's production of Verdi's Il Trovatore included some great singers and some good singers. I was really impressed with the performances of Bruno Caproni (Count di Luna), Sandra Radvanovsky (Leonora) and Jill Grove (Azucena). Marcello Giordani as Manrico was an excellent singer, but didn't match the emotional intensity of Ms. Radvanosky. I have a CD with ballet music from several of Verdi's operas, including Il Trovatore. I was disappointed that there was no dancing in this production, but it was understandable given the considerable length of the show even without the dancing. The opera consists of four acts; HGO split the show with one intermission between Acts II and III. I was dead tired when I went to this performance, and by the end I found myself thinking, "How long does that poison take to work? Die already!" But one of my favorite pieces was the duet between Manrico and Azucena at the end of the fourth act. Il Trovatore includes the famous "Anvil Chorus." I was charmed by the fact that the singers used swords on the stage to achieve the requisite metal-smacking sounds. Maybe all productions do this, but this was my first time seeing this opera, so I was pleasantly surprised. The swords were an integral part of the magnificent set designed by Benoit Dugardyn. (That's a Belgian name, if you're wondering.) We saw rain, snow, and real flames on the stage. One disconcerting moment occurred when Ferrando (Daniel Borowski) leaned again what was supposed to be the solid wall of a fortress; he didn't have the knack and instead swung the wall upstage a few inches. Sort of killed the illusion.