Broadcast of the opera Il Trovatore de Verdi organized by ABAO. Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa. Directed by Francesco Ivan Ciampa (Bilbao Opera Choir) and Boris Dujin. Scenography: William Orlandi. Lighting: Fabio Barrettin. Soloists: Anna Pirozzi (soprano), Ekaterina Semenchuk (mezzo), Celso Albelo (tenor), Juan Jesús Rodríguez (baritone), Riccardo Fassi (low) and Belén Elvira (mezzo). Place: Euskalduna Palace, 20 May.

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Season 71 ends with one of the most beautiful operas of Verdi. The choice of the title of Il Trovatore, so dear to the public in the final straight of this good opera season, was very good to end the Tutto Verdi project.

It is an opera of great melodic beauty, with great passages and arias, but also of great difficulty for the soloists. However, in this field, the truth is that the singers who were on the stage of the Euskalduna gave the best of themselves and offered a high quality of voice and a high level of interpretation.

Firstly, I should like to highlight the delicate orchestral work. The Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, under the direction of Francesco Ivan Ciampa, performed brilliantly. And being magnificent in this area means that vocal work contributes to an elegant balance, without any extrication. The direction of Professor Ciampa was always discreet, simple and balanced.

On the other hand, the Bilbao Opera Choir, accustomed to offering proper and correct action, was an excellent work carried out in Il Trovatore. Perfectly pasted, with a very nice timbre tone, the choir played a leading role, certainly was the best of representation.

The only mistake in this setup, and I'm sad to say, was the scenography of William Orlandi. With all respect, one thing is minimalism and the desire to reflect a cold or mysterious environment, and another is to raise three tables and a dozen banks and move often to create and modify spaces, simply. The well-planned lighting and the projections that represented the action better or worse saved the staging, in any case poor.

The top four soloists. Especially the Russian mezzo Ekaterina Semenchuk, who made a wonderful Azucena. It has an excellent range of voice recordings. Very nice grains, a medium balanced and bright agile sector. In addition, both her legato and her phrasing were fantastic. The tenor Celso Albelo, in Manrico's role, also shone by the beautiful color of his voice.

Baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez, who won the award for the best male voice at the Tutto Verdi International Awards, showed why he received this award. Her voice is clear, elegantly flowing and perfectly suited to Berdian roles. Soprano Anna Pirozzi, in the role of Leone, showed a voice full of nuances and harmonics, but had a rather opaque performance, which perhaps did not live up to the members of the group, although in any case its interpretation was really good.