Il Trovatore Giuseppe Verdi Performed in Italian with English Supertitles Single tickets on sale Aug. 11 (Sept. 2 in Fairfax) Wild flames are soaring. The wealthy Count di Luna brings his forces to bear against those of the troubadour Manrico; both men fiercely determined to capture the love of beautiful Leonora. CONDUCTOR: PETER MARK STAGE DIRECTOR: LILLIAN GROAG

Full Synopsis

ACT I (scene i). The Count di Luna’s soldiers are on guard duty at the Aliaferia Palace. To pass the time and to keep the men awake their officer, Ferrando, tells them a story — the true and grisly tale of the Count di Luna’s younger brother. When the child was a baby an old gypsy hag was found one morning crouching by his cradle, staring at him with wild and bloodshot eyes. She was arrested even though she said she only wanted to cast the baby’s horoscope. When the child became pale and sick within a few days, she was accused of bewitching him and was sentenced to burn at the stake.  As she was dying in the flames she screamed to her daughter, who stood by watching in horror, to avenge her.

Immediately afterward the supposedly bewitched baby was kidnapped and later a child’s bones were found smoldering in the ashes of the gypsy witch’s funeral pyre. The baby’s father, the old Count di Luna refused to believe that these were the bones of his son. On his deathbed he charged his older son, the present Count, to continue searching for his younger brother and to try to find the gypsy witch’s daughter who kidnapped him. Ferrando, finishing the story, vows that he would remember the woman’s face if he should see her, even after all these years.  The superstitious soldiers are horrified by the story and as midnight strikes they react in terror and curse the witch.

(scene ii). The Lady Leonora, the most beautiful lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Aragon, is strolling in the garden with her companion Inez. She talks rapturously of the man she loves—not the Count di Luna but a wandering troubadour who serenades frequently under her window. She muses on the first time she met him. He took part in a court tournament, dressed mysteriously wearing black armor, and when he won, it was Leonora who placed the victor’s wreath on his brow. From that moment on she has been in love with him and has been thrilled to hear her name in his troubadour’s songs sung beneath her window.

Leonora and Inez go inside and the Count di Luna appears in the garden. Insanely in love with Leonora, he keeps a nightly vigil outside her window hoping for a glimpse of her. Suddenly the troubadour appears and begins to sing a love song. Leonora rushes out, mistakes the Count for the troubadour in the shadows, and then announces before both men that it is the troubadour she adores. The troubadour then reveals his identity as Manrico, a civil war foe of the Count. He is, in fact, leader of the opposing troops. Infuriated, the Count challenges Manrico to a duel and they rush off to fight.

ACT II (scene i). The gypsies greet daybreak in the mountains of Vizcaya with a drinking song, accompanying themselves with hammer and anvil. As they sing a gypsy woman named Azucena begins to sing, as though remembering past events, of the horrible burning death of an old gypsy woman. She murmurs the words, “Avenge me.” Her son, Manrico the troubadour, has been resting by the fire recovering from wounds he received in his duel with the Count di Luna. He moves closer and asks Azucena to tell him more about the gypsy who burned to death. She tells the full story, revealing that it was her own mother who was burned.  In a desperate attempt to avenge an unjust execution, she had kidnapped the Count’s young son, planning to throw him into the flames. She continues, in a trance-like state, saying that in her hysterical confusion she threw her own baby son into the fire. Manrico becomes suspicious at once of his true relationship to Azucena, but she hastily covers up the revelation she has made, insisting that he is indeed her own son. Changing the subject, she chides him for not killing the Count di Luna when he had the chance. A messenger suddenly arrives to say that Leonora, believing Manrico dead in the duel, is about to enter a convent and become a nun. Even though Manrico is still weak from his wounds, he rushes off to stop her before she takes her vows.

(scene ii). The Count di Luna, Ferrando and a few soldiers have just arrived at the convent to prevent Leonora from taking her vows. As the Count tries to pull her away from the altar, Manrico and some of his soldiers appear. Leonora is overwhelmed with joy that her beloved is still alive and leaves with Manrico after the Count and his men are driven back. Di Luna is now almost senseless with jealousy and anger.

– INTERMISSION –

ACT III (scene i). The Count di Luna’s forces are preparing for battle outside of Castellor with their enemies in the civil war, led by Manrico. Di Luna is far more preoccupied with thoughts of Leonora than with concern for the up-coming battle. Suddenly Azucena is brought in. As she is questioned she explains that she is simply wandering about looking for her son, Manrico. Ferrando suddenly recognizes her as the daughter of the gypsy witch burned at the stake long ago. The count places her under arrest, delighted at the thought that he can now use the life of Azucena as a weapon against her son, and his rival, Manrico.

(scene ii). Manrico and Leonora are about to be married in the convent chapel. He sings joyously of their love, claiming it will sustain him in the battles to come. Before the wedding can take place his lieutenant Ruiz rushes in saying that the Count has captured Azucena and a stake is being prepared for her execution. Manrico, telling Leonora that he must at this moment be a son first and a lover second, rallies his men and rushes off in an attempt to save his mother.

ACT IV (scene i). Leonora has been brought to the tower of Aliaferia Palace in hopes of seeing her lover and attempting to save his life. She invokes the soft breezes to convey her presence to Manrico in his prison cell and plans to do what she can to save his life even if it means using the poison in a suicide ring which she has prepared.  The Count di Luna, busy giving orders for the double execution of Manrico and Azucena, comes toward the tower and is stopped by Leonora. She begs him to release Manrico. When he refuses she offers the one thing left that might change his mind—herself. Exultantly the Count agrees to release Manrico and, as he turns aside to give new orders, Leonora secretly drinks the poison from the ring. They leave together.

(scene ii). Azucena and Manrico await execution in the dungeon. The gypsy is tormented by visions of her mother’s fiery death. Manrico sooths her gently and urges her to sleep. Leonora enters suddenly but interrupts Manrico’s joyous greetings by urging him to leave quickly and save himself. When she will not go with him, he suspects that she has made a bargain with the Count, giving herself in return for his life. Furious that she has betrayed his love, even to save his life, he curses her. She explains that the Count will never have her for she has taken poison. As the drug takes effect she falls lifeless on the floor. The Count di Luna rushes in and realizing what has happened, wildly orders Manrico to the execution block at once. Azucena awakens just as Manrico is about to be executed. She cries out to the Count to spare him but it is too late. In a hysterical combination of grief and exultation she tells him that he has executed his brother and exclaims loudly, “Mother, you are avenged!”

About the Composer

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Giuseppe Verdi was born in the small village of Le Roncole, Italy. His parents belonged to middle class families of landowners and traders, not the illiterate peasant class from which Verdi later liked to present himself. Carlo Verdi was enthusiastic about his son's education: even before the age of ten, Giuseppe studied with local teachers, received an old spinet as a gift from his father, and was made the town's official organist. He also entered the ginnasio to study humanities and began formal music lessons with the director of the local Philharmonic Society. Antonio Barezzi, a wealthy merchant and musician, recognized Verdi's musical talent and became his patron, providing financial support and encouragement for many years. With his aid, Verdi applied to the Milan Conservatory, but was refused, partly because he was past the entering age, but mostly for his unorthodox piano technique.  Instead, Verdi became the pupil of Vincenzo Lavigna, a former principal conductor at La Scala in Milan. Beyond this he considered himself largely self-taught.

After completing his studies in 1835, Verdi was appointed maestro di musica in Busseto, near his native town. He held the post for three years, also marrying Barezzi's daughter, composing, and giving private lessons. Verdi soon wrote his first opera, Oberto, and began a professional career marked by continual rounds of negotiations with theaters and librettists, and intense periods of composition and preparation for the direction and production of his work. Tragedy struck with the deaths of his wife and two children, causing him to nearly renounce composition altogether. However Nabucco, his next premiere, was an unprecedented success. In what is referred to as his "galley slave" years (1842-1853), Verdi arduously wrote sixteen operas--an average of one every nine months. Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata from the end of this period soon became cornerstones of the Italian operatic repertory.  

Verdi's accumulated wealth granted him greater artistic freedom: in the second half of his life he would only compose eight more operas. He spent most of his time away from the theater, now married to his life-long companion and former soprano, Giuseppina Strepponi. In 1859 the public honored Verdi's patriotism in taking his name to spell out Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia, king of the newly-united independent Italy.

He was nearing the age of sixty when he produced Aida in 1871. With Aida, Verdi achieved that fusion of French and Italian opera traditions that he had long desired. The death of his friend, the great Alessandro Manzoni, would inspire him to write the magnificent Messa da Requiem in 1874. After a period of general disillusionment and unhappiness, Verdi regained the will to compose and wrote two of his greatest masterpieces during his later years: Otello in 1887 and Falstaff in 1893.

Although many of Verdi's operas had disappeared from the repertory by the time of his death in 1901, he had nevertheless become a profound artistic symbol of Italy's achievement of statehood. It is said that during Verdi’s funeral thousands of mourners paid homage by spontaneously singing “Va pensiero,” a chorus from Nabucco written some sixty years earlier. "Va pensiero" expressed the public’s deep feelings and the extent to which Verdi's music had been assimilated into the Italian consciousness.