With a violent revenge plot to rival Game of Thrones and some of opera’s greatest hits in the score, Verdi’s Il Trovatore hits big. Like, sledgehammer big – like the sound of metal on metal to be heard in the opera’s famous ‘Anvil Chorus’.
A huge popular success that was critically derided in its day, Il Trovatore has a melodramatic plot that needs some explanation. The trovatore or troubadour of the title is Manrico, an officer in a rebel army in 15th century Spain. Manrico is in love with Leonora, lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Aragon – but the son of the Count di Luna loves her too.
Intriguingly, none of these figures is actually the opera’s most galvanising character. That would be Manrico’s mother, Azucena, who despises the Count because, years earlier, he burnt her mother at the stake for witchcraft. Worse, Azucena’s attempt at revenge caused the death of her own child. And she has a terrible secret about Manrico that will play out in the most disastrous way imaginable.
Il Trovatore has it all: infanticide, filicide, suicide – all the cides. It’s famous for the way Verdi’s music keeps the action moving forward into a series of dramatic confrontations. Highlights include Leonora’s cavatina (a term for a short but impactful aria): ‘Tacea la notte placida’ and Manrico’s love ballad ‘Ah sì, ben mio’. Quite possibly you already know them without realising it.
Opera Australia is presenting a brand new digital staging by Italian director Davide Livermore in which impressive physical sets are joined by giant, moving digital screens. Keep an eye out for acrobats and a roller skater as well! Legendary tenor Enrico Caruso once deadpanned that all you need for a successful performance of Il Trovatore is the four greatest singers in the world, and that’s not far off what Opera Australia has assembled here: tenor Yonghoon Lee (Manrico); soprano Leah Crocetto (Leonora); mezzo-soprano Elena Gabouri (Azucena); and baritone Maxim Aniskin (Count di Luna).
Melodrama, violence, action, great tunes: what’s not to love?