To stage Verdi’s Il Trovatore, they say, is easy: you just need the four greatest singers in the world. The Royal Opera has applied this principle to La forza del destino. Jonas Kaufmann sings Alvaro, Anna Netrebko is his beloved Leonora, and Ludovic Tézier her brother Carlo, with the mighty Ferruccio Furlanetto completing the set as the priest Padre Guardiano. The results have been pretty much as you might expect, ranging from the now-traditional speculation about whether Kaufmann would actually show up (he did) to reports of tickets changing hands privately for £5,000 apiece.
And yes, it was extraordinary: a four-hour rush of some of the most glorious singing anyone born after 1970 will probably ever have heard in one place. Netrebko’s voice is phenomenal, capable even at its softest of floating luminously over a full orchestra, and seemingly controlled by an internal dimmer switch that can turn a phrase from a diaphanous whisper up to a searchlight blaze. Netrebko was the evening’s knockout (and her raucous fanbase made sure that we knew it), gleaming brilliantly against Furlanetto’s austere, dignified bass, and the bronzed declamation of Tézier, who grew ever more clenched as his character pursued his vendetta. Tézier has said that Carlo represents ‘everything we hate’, leaving us with the paradox that an artist can give a towering performance without, apparently, understanding fundamental aspects of his role.
Kaufmann was the weakest member of the central cast. The patchiness of his voice — especially in quieter passages — was particularly noticeable in such company, for all the obvious sincerity of his performance and his golden ability to knock a high note for six, at least once he’s worked up to it. That was the hairline crack that admitted cold reality to the evening’s glamour.
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