VERDI rated Il Trovatore highly. To its librettist he remarked: ''If

only the whole opera could be, as it were, all one number, I would find

that reasonable and right.'' Most performances, however, continue to

present it as a ragbag of arias, ensembles, and choruses, though about

Scottish Opera's new production last night there was at least a

glimmering of unity.

Most of this stemmed from Tim Hatley's heavy geometrical sets, like

monolithic slabs of concrete that might have been fragments of some

larger, even heavier New York Metropolitan production. They were not in

themselves visually rewarding, even when atmospherically lit, but they

did serve to keep the action moving, without the lengthy pauses that

have reduced the force of many another production of Trovatore. They

also enabled (another plus point) the performance to be given with just

one interval instead of three.

But sadly, Mark Brickman's production seldom seized its opportunities.

Though the cast did not lack good voices, nobody managed to set this

Trovatore aflame. The story was unfolded with a limited command of

gesture, as if that were all it needed. The fact that nothing (or

nothing much) was allowed to get in the way of the music should have

been something to be thankful for; but the work has a stronger plot than

it is usually allowed, and the warring factions require to be

distinguished more subtly than by tableauesque colour coding -- dark

greys, on this occasion, for Count di Luna and his troops, red pants and

headbands for Manrico's gypsies.

Still, Richard Armstrong conducted with the seriousness Verdi

deserved, even if he did not always succeed in galvanising the

accompaniments the way one hoped.

Vladimir Redkin as Count di Luna and Ludmila Nam as Azucena brought

Russian expressiveness to a cast-list that was originally also to have

had a Russian Manrico (in the person of the tenor who flopped so

famously in the Edinburgh Festival performance of The Oprichnik); but

Kenneth Collins, his replacement, showed that he had the voice, if not

yet the dramatic resourcefulness, for the role.

As for Lisa Gasteen's Leonora, Cardiff's 1991 Singer of the Year

proved that she could sing soft passages with beauty and finesse, though

at the top of her register she was unreliable.