FFWD Weekly
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Opera by Jeff Goffin IL TROVATORE BY GIUSEPPE VERDI CALGARY OPERA DIRECTED BY BILL GLASSCO JUBILEE AUDITORIUM OCTOBER 14, 18, 20, 2000 In one of my favourite old movies, A Night at the Opera, the comic trio of the Marx Brothers are unleashed at the opera, and in their usual rebellious way they completely destroy the show. They pop up in the middle of the action, they knock down the scenery, they even kidnap the lead performer to bring the curtain down on a performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore. I've often wondered what this opera might be like without the interruptions from Groucho, Harpo and Chico, so I'm quite pleased that this week Calgary Opera will give me an opportunity to see a complete performance. I met with Taras Kulish and Frank Porretta, who will be appearing in the new production. Though neither one even slightly resembles my Marx-ist heroes, we had a good time talking about executions, infanticide, mistaken identity, love and revenge – the usual stuff of opera. Mayhem and murder are part of lI Trovatore’s story, which, like the plots of most operas, is very complicated. Azucena, a gypsy woman, swears revenge against the noble di Luna family for burning her mother at the stake. She winds up blaming the di Lunas for the death of her child, too. To avenge her family she kidnaps and raises a child to punish her enemy. Before the curtain falls she suffers a grisly fate herself. All this takes place against a backdrop of civil war. Taras Kulish, in from his hometown Montreal to play Ferrando, the friend and confidante of Count di Luna, assures me that I shouldn't have trouble following it at all. "In the first 20 minutes, my character tells the story of what's going on," he explains. "Who the witch is., who the Count is, what happened a generation ago and what will happen in the opera. So, if you pay attention in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the opera, the story is laid out for you." New Yorker Frank Porretta portrays Manrico, the man raised by the gypsy as an instrument of revenge. For Porretta, the music is the main attraction. "There's never a dull moment!" he announces with a laugh. "For this opera it seems like every piece could be released as a single. It's one hit after another. "There are a lot of melodies you're going to hear that you're going to recognize. Even if the only opera experience you've ever had is the music from Bugs Bunny, you're going to recognize something." "The music is just gut-wrenching," adds Kulish. "It raises the hair on the back of your neck, it's just so thrilling. It takes you away. It's Verdi – one beautiful melody after another." Il Trovatore will be performed in the original Italian. For those of us not fluent in Italian, Calgary Opera will be using supertitles, a technology that displays an English translation of the lyrics above the stage, much like subtitles in a movie. "Supertitles have changed opera for the better," says Porretta. "The biggest problem with opera is people think it's inaccessible, and for the most part, until the use of supertitles, it was. You go and see a comedy by Mozart and you miss all the jokes because you don't speak Italian! But it's so much more fun to go to opera now." For both of these performers, the opera is a true labour of love and one which keeps them on the road over half the year. "Once the opera thing has bitten you, that’s it!" says Kulish. "You're addicted for life. It takes a while before it grows on you but once you're there – it's thrilling."

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