The Metropolitan Opera introduced a new production of Giuseppe Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (The Troubadour, 1853)-the company's fourth different one in as many decades-on February 16 and seems, finally, to have gotten it right again. I caught up with David McVicar's Met debut production, with designs by Charles Edwards (sets-debut), Brigitte Reiffenstuel (costumes-debut), and Jennifer Tipton (lighting), under Gianandrea Noseda's baton, at its seventh performance, on March 10, or about halfway through its run this season.

Noseda's "Trovatore" is taut, briskly paced, and marked by all the requisite blood and thunder, and bel canto. Shared with San Francisco and Chicago, the production, updated from the 1400s to the early 1800s, the ubiquitous top hats a dead giveaway, features aptly non-stop violence, high walls and gates, a steep staircase, a revolving platform to facilitate scene changes, and a larger-than-life-sized Crucifix, as well as hanged victims of battle ominously echoing it.

Dolora Zajick's powerhouse Azucena wields a dagger, first, drawing on some none-too-remote memory, on a hapless child, until restrained by the other gypsies, and then on Marcelo Álvarez's Manrico, to flick away the dressing on the chest wound she's been tending, before turning it over to this man, whom she calls "son," and ordering him to do in Dmitri Hvorostovsky's Count di Luna-his brother, though he doesn't know it-with the weapon. She later laughs at her captors as they taunt her. Manrico has di Luna in his power, on his knees before him, the dagger at his throat, but bound by blood, proves unable to strike the fatal blow. Sondra Radvanovsky's youthful Leonora is plainly thrilled about the adventure she is having with her outsider admirer, the troubadour Manrico, and becomes exasperated with Maria Zifchak's worried Inez, her companion, when she urges caution. Trying to reach her doomed love, she climbs on the prison gate-fancy asking Zinka Milanov, Leontyne Price or Joan Sutherland to attempt that. The gypsy camp boasts shirtless musclemen, working the smoking foundry and banging on the anvils, while di Luna's camp has a shirtless chorister, in high black boots, at his bath and a sextet of camp followers to entertain the troops. This is clearly not your grandmother's "Trovatore," but, after three tries since the Met's move to Lincoln Center, this one's a keeper.

Welcomed back after an indisposition kept her out of the previous performance, Zajick, who has owned the role of Azucena here for two decades, once more commands the stage, her voice securely bright or dark as needed, in "Stride la vampa!" and "Condotta ell'era in ceppi," in her first scene, and "Giorni poveri vivea ... Deh! rallentate, o barbari," in her next.

Radvanovsky's vibrant, flexible chiaroscuro soprano, stylishly wielded, makes her the exemplary exponent of dramatic bel canto Verdi, as evidenced by her breathtaking "Tacea la notte placida" and cabaletta "Di tale amore, che dirsi" (twice), and "D'amor sull'ali rosee" and cabaletta "Tu vedrai che amore in terra" (once). The Met management would be foolish to let her slip through their hands. She caps the second scene trio with a blazing high D-flat and adds high C-in the tradition of Frances Alda and Kitty Carlisle-to the "Miserere" and to the recitative before "Vivrà! Contende il giubilo."

Hearing Hvorostovsky's dark, chocolaty baritone and enjoying his dignified, handsome presence, as he begins the opera's second scene, is a distinct pleasure. Although di Luna's high-lying "Il balen del suo sorriso" and "Per me ora fatale" are not the most comfortable fit for his weighty instrument, he more than redeems himself with the fine bel canto of his fourth act duet with Leonora.

As Manrico, Álvarez makes his present felt in the trio with Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky and the duet with Zajick, no mean task, but really comes into his own in Act Three, Scene Two, with "Ah sì, ben mio," whether singing softly or letting out all the stops, and rousing "Di quella pira" (once), capped with a sustained top note.

Bass Kwangchul Youn, as Ferrando, kicks the proceedings off with flair with a sturdy "Abbietta zingara." Eduardo Valdes is the sympathetic Ruiz.

Kudos go to chorus and orchestra for their contributions toward making this a "Trovatore" to remember.

This cast remains intact for the March 13 performance, but Luciana D'Intino replaces Zajick on the 16th and 20th. D'Intino retains the role of Azucena for the hearings on April 21 at 8 p.m., 25 at 8:30 p.m., and 29 at 8 p.m. and May 2 at 12 noon and 8 at 8 p.m., but her colleagues then are Hasmik Papian, Marco Berti, Željko Lučić, Burak Bilgili, Laura Vlasek Nolen and conductor Riccardo Frizza. For tickets, priced from $15 to 375, go to www.metopera.org, call 212/362-6000, or visit the Met box office at Lincoln Center. On weekdays, look for $20 rush tickets at the box office, sold on the day of the performance. There is also a new $25 Weekend Tickets program.