Release Date: 03 January 2003
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 636943124024
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: VERDI
Description
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)Il TrovatoreIl trovatore was the middle opera of the three masterpieces that consolidated Giuseppe Verdi’s fame. Composed mainly in 1852, it came two years after Rigoletto and was finished only months before the much more quickly written La traviata. Its brilliant music gave Verdi perhaps the greatest success of his career, as Trovatore ignited public enthusiasm even more wholeheartedly than Rigoletto had done. By comparison La traviata, which had a rather downbeat première and had to be revised, was a slow starter in the popularity stakes. As he would later do with La forza del destino, Verdi went to an elaborate Spanish tragedy for his inspiration – in this case El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. In the spring of 1851, soon after the première of Rigoletto, he began work on shaping a libretto in collaboration with the Neapolitan poet Salvatore Cammarano. Everything went reasonably well until Cammarano’s death in July 1852, which was a personal as well as a professional setback for Verdi. The final work on the libretto was done by the young poet Leone Emanuele Bardare, who provided some crucial verses. Il trovatore had its triumphant première at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 19th January 1853 and swept through the major Italian opera houses over the next two years. In May 1855 it was heard in both New York and London and since then it has been a fixture in the repertoire. Much ink has been spilt on the convoluted nature of the story, the subject of many parodies, and for today’s sensibilities it is difficult to see any meaning in the deaths at the end of the opera. Perhaps it is best to view the tragedy as Verdi probably saw it, as a vehicle for strong, stirring stage situations. In the theatre (or even listening to a good recording such as this one) it is impossible not to be swept away by the passion of the trio in Part I, Scene 2, the duet of Azucena and Manrico in Part II, Scene 1, the confrontation between the gypsy and Luna in Part III, Scene 1, the Miserere and the duet of Leonora and the Count di Luna in Part IV, Scene 1, or the moving ensembles in the final scene. Then there are the arias, all of which are among the strongest written by Verdi. One of his main gifts to Italian opera was his creation of the balanced cast, in which soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and bass all took an equal share in the action. This magnificent variety came to its first full fruition in Il trovatore, which requires five singers of the highest calibre – the bass rôle is not as extensive as the others but Ferrando opens the opera with a superb scene (shared with the chorus, another vital ingredient in Verdi’s brew) which establishes the atmosphere for what follows. The most exceptional creation is the mezzo-soprano rôle of the crazed gypsy Azucena, whose agitated narration ‘Condotta ell’era in ceppi’ foreshadows Verdi’s
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Tullio Serafin
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