A woman is wrongly accused of bewitching a child. The consequences are tragic for everyone.
The Auckland Philharmonia's Opera in Concert for 2022, performed in Auckland Town Hall, 16 July 2022.
Photo: Adrian Malloch
Cast
Leonora … Erika Grimaldi
Azucena … Olesya Petrova
Manrico … Gustavo Porta
Ferrando … Petri Lindroos
Conte di Luna … Simone Piazzola
Inez … Morag Atchison
Ruiz … Andrew Grenon
Messenger … Arthur Adams-Close
Old Gypsy … Sashe Angelovski
New Zealand Opera Chorus, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Giordano Bellincampi.
Verdi wrote Il Trovatore, “the Troubadour”, to a libretto penned largely by Salvadore Cammarano, but finished by Leone Emanuele Bardare after Cammarano’s death. It’s based on a Spanish play by Antonio García Gutiérrez and is in four acts, each with two scenes.
Act 1 - The Duel
We are in Spain. In the first scene, Ferrando gives us the back story. The old Count di Luna had two sons and the younger one became gravely ill as a baby. A gypsy woman was accused of having bewitched the boy and was burned at the stake. Her daughter Azucena was compelled to avenge her death by abducting the baby; the charred remains of a child were found in the embers of the funeral pyre. But the Count never gave up hope that this son was still alive and when he was on his death bed, he commanded his firstborn – the Count di Luna in this opera – to find Azucena.
In the second scene, we meet Leonora who confesses her love for Manrico to her maid Inez. She had seen him as a victorious knight many years ago but then lost track of him. He has now returned in disguise as a troubadour to woo her. The Count di Luna enters and we learn that he wants to pay court to Leonora herself. Manrico appears and sings a serenade to Leonora. Not only are they after the same gal, the two men are fighting on opposite sides of a war between two princes. They argue and fight a duel with swords, but the outcome is not revealed.
Act 2 - The Gypsy Woman
The second act opens in a camp of gypsies. They sing the so-called Anvil Chorus – probably the opera’s most famous tune.
Azucena is there with her son, who just happens to be Manrico. She tells him the story of her mother’s death and the abducted baby. She says that she had intended to burn the child in the fire, but in the horror and confusion of the moment, she accidentally threw her own boy in instead.
Manrico reveals that he defeated the Count in the duel, but that at the last moment, a mysterious power stopped him from completing the killing.
Subsequently he was wounded in an ambush and is lying up here at the camp recovering. A Messenger arrives with the news that Manrico’s allies have taken a strategic castle and that he is ordered to go and hold it for his prince. He also learns that Leonora is preparing to enter a convent … she’s under the impression that he is dead. He rushes off to deal with both issues.
The second scene of Act 2 is in the convent. The Count is plotting to steal Leonora away but Manrico appears to thwart those plans. There’s a fracas and Manrico and Leonora escape together.
Act 3 - The Son of the Gypsy Woman
At the beginning of Act, Leonora and Manrico have taken refuge in the Castellor fortress. Which the Count is now attacking.
His officer Ferrando has managed to capture Azucena, Manrico’s mother, and the Count realises he has a means to flush the lovers out. He orders Ferrando to build a pyre to burn Azucena.
In the castle, Manrico and Leonora are preparing to get married, but when he hears of Azucena’s capture, he gets his forces ready to fight.
Act 4 - The Punishment
We jump ahead. Manrico and his men have been defeated and he is in prison.
Leonora, after an aria in which she prays for his comfort, sings of her distress while he is heard bidding her farewell from his cell.
She then begs the Count to release Manrico by offering herself to Luna. He joyfully agrees but secretly she takes poison from her ring so that the Count can never have her alive.
In the final scene, Manrico and Azucena are in the dungeon together awaiting execution. He comforts her to sleep. Leonora comes to tell Manrico he is saved. He guesses the nature of her bargain with the Count and is angry, but the poison takes its effect and she dies in his arms. The Count overhears all this and orders Manrico’s immediate execution.
But Azucena delivers the ultimate coup to the Count: Manrico was the baby she didn’t throw into the fire. The Count has killed his own brother. Azucena’s mother is finally avenged.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Town Hall, 16 July 2022
Producer: Tim Dodd
Engineer: Adrian Hollay
