She is the revelation in this revival of David McVicar’s effective, efficient 2009 production. (This is the fourth McVicar staging at the Met this season and the third this month; surely the company’s audience would be well served by a broader range of directorial approaches than his starkish period-dress naturalism.)

But Ms. Rachvelishvili is not the only highlight in a treat of a “Trovatore.” Under Marco Armiliato, the orchestra plays with spirited polish. The baritone Quinn Kelsey, an aristocratic but fierce Count di Luna, has a distinctive tone: rich but smoky — even, excitingly, a little hollow, as if you’re always hearing him in an empty, echoey church.

At full tilt, the tenor Yonghoon Lee (as Manrico, the troubadour of the title, di Luna’s nemesis and Azucena’s son) sings with clarion robustness; it’s only when he tries to go gentler that his voice turns thin and crooning. The soprano Jennifer Rowley took over the full “Trovatore” run from an ill colleague less than two weeks ago. As the noblewoman Leonora, battled over by Manrico and the count, she is finely controlled, her tone clear and clean. Sympathetic, particularly in the opera’s last minutes, she never quite galvanizes.

“My frightened heart can barely beat,” she claims in the final act. You hear Ms. Rowley, but you don’t quite believe her; Ms. Rachvelishvili, you always do.