At the Palladium our performance season always starts with the opening production from our friends at St. Petersburg Opera. And this weekend, Verdi’s Il Torvatore is here!
And after a long-hot summer, there is finally some cooler temperatures outside, but on stage passions will be running hot. Il Trovatore includes kidnapping, bewitching, duels, lovers on the run, and more and more, and then, a little more!
The Palladium’s backstage is crammed with swords and other weaponry. This is no comic opera. Tickets are going fast, so follow this link for shows tonight, Sunday and Tuesday. And with all the intrigue and action, I thought you might want some background and a simple telling of the story. Here’s what I found on the Metropolitan Opera site.
See you this weekend at the opera and throughout our great 2016-17 season. I’ll be announcing that in the next few days.
Il Trovatore – World premiere: Teatro Apollo, Rome, 1853. Met premiere: October 26, 1883.
In a remarkable career spanning six decades in the theater, Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) composed 28 operas, at least half of which are at the core of today’s repertoire. Salvadore Cammarano (1801–1852) was one of the foremost librettists of his day. He collaborated with Donizetti (Lucia di Lammermoor, among others) and wrote the text for La Battaglia di Legnano and Luisa Miller for Verdi. After his death the Trovatore libretto was completed by fellow writer Leone Emanuele Bardare (1820–after 1874).
Part 1: The Duel
Spain is torn apart by civil war. The commander of the Royalist Aragon troops, Count di Luna, is obsessed with Leonora, a young noblewoman in the queen’s service, who does not return his love. Outside the royal residence his soldiers keep watch at night. An unknown troubadour has been heard serenading Leonora and the jealous count is determined to capture and punish him. To keep his troops awake, the captain, Ferrando, recounts the terrible story of a Gypsy woman who was burned at the stake years ago for bewitching the count’s infant brother. The Gypsy’s daughter then took revenge by kidnapping the boy and—so the story goes—throwing him into the flames where her mother had died. The charred skeleton of a baby was discovered there and di Luna’s father died of grief soon after. No trace was ever found of the Gypsy’s daughter, but di Luna, always hoping that the remains might not have been his brother’s, has sworn to find her.
In the palace gardens Leonora confesses to her companion that she is in love with a mysterious man she met before the outbreak of the war. It is he who now returns as the troubadour to serenade her each night. After they have left, Count di Luna appears, looking for Leonora. The troubadour’s song is heard in the darkness and Leonora rushes out to greet him but is seized instead by di Luna. The troubadour reveals his true identity: he is Manrico, leader of the partisan rebel forces. Furious, the count challenges him to fight to the death.
Part 2: The Gypsy
The duel has been fought. Manrico overpowered the count but some instinct stopped him from killing his rival. The war has raged on with the Royalist forces victorious in the last battle. Manrico has been badly wounded and nursed back to health by his mother, the Gypsy Azucena, in a camp in the mountains.
Azucena is the woman di Luna has been looking for. Her life is scarred by the memory of her mother’s death and the terrible revenge she exacted. Manrico, who has never heard the full story, is determined to finally know the truth. Azucena tells him how she stole the count’s infant son but that the child she murdered in her manic rage was in fact her own. When Manrico demands to know who he truly is, Azucena is evasive: all that matters is the love of a mother she has shown him all his life and that he does not fail to take revenge on the house of di Luna. A messenger arrives with news of Leonora. Believing Manrico has died in battle, and to escape the grasp of di Luna, she is entering a convent. Azucena pleads with Manrico to stay, but he resolves to go to her immediately.
Di Luna arrives at the convent with his troops to take Leonora by force, but his attempt to seize her is foiled by the attack of Manrico and his men. In the ensuing fight, the lovers escape.
Part 3: The Gypsy’s Son
Di Luna has laid siege to the fortress where Manrico has taken refuge with Leonora. Azucena, who has been captured by Ferrando wandering nearby, is brought into the camp. When she hears di Luna’s name, her reaction arouses suspicion and Ferrando recognizes her as the murderer of the count’s brother. Azucena cries out to Manrico to rescue her and di Luna realizes he now has his enemy in his hands. He orders a pyre built to burn Azucena before the walls of the fortress.
Inside the castle, Manrico and Leonora are preparing to be married. She is frightened, but he assures her of his love even in the face of death. When news of Azucena’s capture arrives, he summons his men and prepares to attack.
Part 4: The Execution
Manrico’s army has been defeated and he and Azucena are being held captive in di Luna’s castle. Leonora has escaped and now comes to the prison to pray for Manrico’s salvation. When di Luna orders the execution of Manrico and Azucena at sunrise, Leonora offers herself to the count in return for her lover’s life and secretly takes a slow-acting poison.
Manrico tries to comfort Azucena, who is terrified by visions of the stake and the fire that awaits her. Leonora appears to tell Manrico that he is saved and urges him to escape. He understands what she has done and furiously denounces her, refusing di Luna’s mercy. But the poison is already taking effect and Leonora dies in his arms, just as di Luna arrives. He sends Manrico to his execution. Azucena cries out that her mother is avenged: di Luna has killed his own brother.
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