<<  -- 7 --  Roderic Dunnett    SUMMER OPERA REVIEWS

The Royal Northern College-trained, Mexican-born tenor Luis Rodriguez was not, it must be said, an unmitigated success in the focal role of the trovatore (or troubadour) hero, Manrico. Rodriguez tends to float unpredictably in and out of tune -- as also, surprisingly, did Charles Johnston's Conte di Luna. But Stowe had a masterly asset in the outstanding character mezzo Fiona Kimm, who brought to the gypsy Azucena -- as besotting and bewitching as Carmen -- the kind of visual fire and vocal power, notably a superb low register, one looks for on the national opera stage, where Kimm is an acclaimed regular. Mark Steeds's lighting, interesting throughout (and abetted here by a violent orange-red cyclorama, dramatically wrenched into turquoise), and Robin Martin Oliver's intelligent chorus blocking lent an added dark character to the Azucena and gipsy scenes.

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