As the curtain rises, we see a grey wall with graffiti on it. An ominous drum beat sounds and if we needed any more foreshadowing that this story will not be a happy one, we get it shortly as Leonora, proclaiming her love for the mysterious troubadour sings “If I cannot live for him, I will die for him.”
Meanwhile, in a departure from tradition, Azucena (a stunning Raehann Bryce-Davis) makes her entrance in Act I, sitting, seething in a chair center stage. She doesn’t sing, that will come in Act II when she reveals what she did after her mother was burned at the stake as a witch, but she clearly establishes her character. This is a woman with grievances.
In Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Verdi’s
Il Trovatore , HGO has assembled a stellar cast of principal singers, aided admirably by the HGO Chorus and a small platoon of nimble dancers.
Besides Bryce-Davis there is Michael Spyres as troubadour Marico, Ailyn Pérez as Leonora, and Lucas Meachem as Count di Luna. All were in fine voice Friday doing full justice to Verdi's remarkable score — with soprano Pérez most often getting sustained applause. Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers conducted with grace and vigor with a score he clearly loves and considers a masterpiece.
Besides the early arrival of Azucena in the opera, Director Stephen Wadsworth’s hand is seen to good effect throughout the opera. “The Anvil Chorus” was delivered not with hammers hitting anvils but chorus members punctuating the song with spoons and castanets. A Vegas chorus line of male and female dancers pops up to general laughter throughout the audience; it was a tossup to determine who was wearing more glitz – the dancers on stage or the opening night audience. Apprehended by the Count’s men, a filled-with-rage Azucena delivers a couple of kicks out at them as they manhandle her off the stage.
In Verdi's opera in addition to the usual rivals-for-love storyline — troubadour Manrico has the love of Leonora while nasty Count di Luna wants her love and will apparently go to any lengths to secure her even raiding a convent – the opera is set against the backdrop of a civil war.
Azucena, trapped in a past of her own mistakes and her mother’s call for vengeance shocks Manrico in Act II when she finally tells him that disoriented by seeing her mother being burned to death, she threw her own son rather than the first Count’s son (Manrico) into the fire.
She raises Manrico as her own, but it is only in the second act that she lets her adult son know what she did years before. Understandably, he is stunned by the news.
Still, whatever else Azucena is, she’s a devoted mother to Manrico, taking care of him on the battlefield after he is wounded. Later in the opera, when the Count’s men capture her and Manrico hears she’s to be burned at the stake just like her mother, he rushes to her side where he is captured and sentenced to be executed.
In trade for Manrico’s life, Leonora offers herself to Count di Luna who accepts the deal, which he rescinds after realizing she’s taken poison and dies. One of his henchmen fatally guts Manrico with a knife whereupon Azucena cries out to the Count that he’s just killed his own brother. The brother he’s been searching after for years.
In this case, the old adage that "Revenge is a dish best served cold" might be of little consolation for Azucena for all that she has lost.
Performances continue through November 3 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Tuesday and 2 p.m. Sundays at Wortham Center, 501 Texas. Sung in Italian with projected English. For more information, call 713-228-6737 or visit houstongrandopera.org.$25-$280. 
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