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Angieszka Rehlis as Azucena in Il trovatore | Credit: Camilla Greenwell

Stairs, in your multitudes. Adele Thomas’s Trovatore is a workout that stuns the stage in the first half and leaves much to be desired in the second. Verdi’s score grabs us from the start and Thomas sails us through the first act choruses with gripping drama.

Four acrobatic dancers create a animalistic creepy backdrop to the drama, cartwheeling through the Anvil’s chorus and bringing some dark humor. The set is dominated by those grey stairs with circus and costumes making sense of the bare levels in the first act, but by the second’s introspective aria-fest, the singer are left feeling static and the pace drags.

Maybe this is partly Verdi’s fault – his choruses really pack a punch and draw in any opera-goer, but for the love scenes to work, such as Leonora’s ‘D’amor sull’ali rosee’, requires a cast able to spin a magical web around its audience.

This Trovatore saw mixed casting, with a mighty Manrico in Michael Fabiano owning the stage with his refreshing tone and sparkling projection. In Act 2 his voice was sometimes was overblown, though his tenderness for his mother scaled it back again and his care of Azucena was magically orchestrated. Leonora was a strong Rachel Willis-Sørensen, with a wide sound and mezzo vocal quality. Its not the agile Leonora that we might expect with her often struggling in the upper-register, but her voice is full of the emotion and showing a new vulnerability to her voice during the convent scene towards the end of act 1.

The finale of Il trovatore | Credit: Camilla Greenwell

The Count di Luna – Alesksei Isaev – left much to be desired with a static performance that didn’t convince of his love for Leonora. This reading of the count feels misjudged and his voice is somewhat uneven. Smaller roles of Ruiz (Ryan Vaughan Davies) and Ines (Valentina Puskás) were beautifully executed with great attention to detail. Ferrando too, with a slightly underpowered Riccardo Fassi, brought great comedy and set the work on fire from the start.

Azucena, the gypsy mother of Manrico, saw great nuance in Angieszka Rehlis, though stunning variation in tone, stamina and a strong sound. Sometimes this wasn’t full enough to capture fully the trauma of the character, though it was a fair price to play for the immaculate control of her voice.

Thomas’s attention to detail has strong moments, with the end of Act 1’s convent scene showing beautiful command of levels and complimenting costumes (design by Annemarie Woods). The opera's finale, too, made fantastic work of Verdi’s abrupt musical summation with a fiery red hue and jeering chorus. In the pit, Giacomo Sagripanti made magnificent work of the score and musicians, with a sure foundation for the singers to work from. Timing was especially impressive and his sometimes more conservative tempi made sense when resulting in total, electric precision.

Until 22 March, then from 8 July rbo.org.uk