The last time San Francisco Opera audiences heard soprano Angel Blue was in 2009, when she made a brief but alluring appearance as Clara in Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” Since then, her career has blossomed, with leading performances at the world’s top opera houses that have drawn nothing but praise.

Now we know why.

Blue returned to the War Memorial Opera House in triumph on Tuesday, Sept. 12, to open the company’s 101st season as Leonora in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” It was a dazzling performance, marked by a steely but tender vocal quality, pinpoint technical control and a total dedication to the expressive qualities of the role.

Blue was in good company, too, working with a strong cast under the vigorous leadership of Music Director Eun Sun Kim to put across the emotional undercurrents of Verdi’s melodrama and minimize its dramatic absurdities. The San Francisco Opera Chorus, led by John Keene, gave a robust performance as, alternately, Spanish soldiers and the community usually called gypsies, who have now been recast under the name Roma.

Tuesday, though, was Blue’s night, an opportunity to revel in her versatile artistry as she undertook the role of Leonora for the first time. As in so many operas of the period, Verdian or otherwise, this is an assignment that calls for both fluid lyricism and extravagant vocal fireworks — often back to back — and Blue executed all of it with aplomb.

In the Act 1 aria “Tacea la notte,” in which Leonora confesses to her companion that she has fallen in love with the mysterious troubadour of the opera’s title, Blue strung out the extended vocal line with long-breathed phrases, then attacked the rapid-fire companion piece (“Di tale amor”) in a flurry of flawless coloratura.

She sounded even more impressive in the demanding final act, an endurance test for any soprano. Here again, Blue lofted high, beautifully shaped melodic phrases and imbued them with persuasive ardor (not to mention an eerily believable death rattle, executed while singing).

Tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz contributed a wonderfully appealing turn as the troubadour Manrico, spry of tone and full of dashing ardor. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk (a late substitution for the ailing Anita Rachvelishvili) was a fiery presence as his Roma mother Azucena, and their splendid duets together came as a reminder of how perceptively Verdi writes for the combination of parent and child.

Romanian baritone George Petean’s company debut as the Count di Luna, the predictably villainous third point of the opera’s love triangle, was a rich-hued but dramatically blunt affair. You could hear the musical processes at work without getting much sense of why they mattered. 

There were also impressive turns by two Adler fellows — soprano Mikayla Sager as Leonora’s confidante Inez and tenor Edward Graves as Ruiz, one of Manrico’s soldiers — and a stentorian but tuneless appearance by bass Robert Pomakov as di Luna’s captain Ferrando.

“Trovatore” marks the beginning of a multiyear initiative for Kim and the company, in which each season promises to include one major work apiece by both Verdi and Wagner. (The latter composer is represented this season by “Lohengrin,” opening Oct. 15.)

Tuesday’s performance — dedicated to the memory of the great Italian soprano Renata Scotto, who died Aug. 16 — found Kim pursuing a wealth of important rhythmic and harmonic ideas that weren’t always realized in performance. Repeatedly, one heard her sweeping her way into a cannily chosen tempo — often on the faster side — and heard the orchestra struggling to match her.

At other times, though, including the oracular opening and the stately “Miserere” in the final act, everyone was on the same page and the results were glorious. Kim and the orchestra seem to be building a close-knit interpretive relationship that is still in progress.

In future seasons, they will have more to work with than “Trovatore,” whose dramatic weaknesses are a problem for any interpreters. When people talk about the inanities of opera plots (and implore us, against all rational understanding, to simply ignore them and concentrate on the music) it is “Trovatore” above all that they’re talking about.

There’s a witch burned at the stake. There’s a dead baby. There are two brothers who don’t know they’re brothers.

Whatever action there is happens either between the acts or in a series of long and weirdly detailed narrative arias. Tip for first-timers: Pay very careful attention during the first three minutes of the opera (the Verdian equivalent of a “Star Wars” screen crawl) or you’ll spend the evening without a clue what everyone’s so upset about.

Director David McVicar’s production, first seen here in 2009 and restaged now by Roy Rallo, relocates the action from the 15th to the 18th century. That gives us Goyaesque backdrops in designer Charles Edwards’ aptly moody sets, but still leaves us in a dramatic fog.

Cutting through the haze was Blue’s work to undertake, and she pulled it off superbly. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait another 14 years for her to return.

Reach Joshua Kosman: jkosman@sfchronicle.com