Il trovatore on original instruments, Fidenza, 1996

 


One of the funniest evenings I ever spent in the opera house was at Fidenza in a so-called original instrument performance of  'Il trovatore.'

When I saw that advertised, I just had to be there. Hopefully there would be some kind of revelation with Verdi's score performed by the instruments of the time. Then maybe the Manrico would be a discovery; the next Caruso possibly? Otherwise there could as a minimum be a find of some sort among the other roles - Leonora, Azucena, di Luna, even Ferrando?

The sets and production might also have turned up something of interest. You never know.

Except, in Italy you do know. Everything was uniformly terrible. It takes a peculiar talent to get everything down to such an abismal level. The orchestra was from East Germany. The conductor was an oboist trying his hand at conducting.

The first scene was intollerably slow. After what seemed an eternity a voice called out

'Piu lento, maestro!'

At this the so-called conductor became angry and conducted with more vigour. The performance picked up a bit and got better as a result.


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