Friday, 3 March 2017

26 January 2017. Il Trovatore at the ROH


This was, to me, a very enjoyable production of a rather strange tale. Two brothers separated as children and estranged from each other vie for the affections of the same woman. The one who wins the lady's heart has been raised by gypsies. He is captured by the other – who inherited their father's title of Count - and executed. At this final point, it is time for his true identity to be revealed by his adoptive mother – herself on a lifelong mission to avenge her own mother's death at the hands of the two boys' father.
To some degree the unlikelihood of the unfolding events gets in the way. The two men know there is something between them early on but do nothing about it – certainly the one raised by gypsies has been given all the salient information by his adoptive mother.

Nonetheless, it was a magical evening, dramatically staged.  

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