Adele Thomas’ production lights up the stage with ‘anarchic imagination’ (Guardian), combining Hieronymus Bosch-inspired mayhem and medieval lore. Three unique casts are led by conductors Giacomo Sagripanti and Carlo Rizzi to bring Verdi’s dark and disturbing tale to energetic life.

Drama and energy

Verdi wrote Il trovatore hot on the heels of Rigoletto, and its premiere came only two months before that of La traviata. But Il trovatore, while no less popular than these other operas, is quite different. Verdi himself had suggested the source material, Antonio García Gutiérrez’s play El trovador (1836), to his librettist Salvatore Cammarano.

At the anvil

Il trovatore is probably best known for the ‘Anvil Chorus’, Azucena’s ‘Stride la vampa’ (The flame crackles!) and Manrico’s heroic ‘Di quella pira’ (The flames of the pyre). But Verdi wrote wonderful music for all four of his leads, with the aristocratic ‘Il balen del suo sorriso’ (The flashing of her smile) for the Count, and Leonora’s prayer ‘D’amor sull’ali rosee’ (On the rosy wings of love) among a host of thrilling ensembles and chorus numbers.