A Message from the General Director
April 26, 2012
Welcome to this production of one of Giuseppe Verdi’s finest creations, Il trovatore (“The Troubadour”). Since its premiere in 1853 this has been one of the world’s most beloved operas. Its startling wealth of melodic invention and genuine emotion make it the quintessential Italian opera. While the plot details are complex, the characters and dramatic situations are not. No theorizing is necessary to enjoy this opera: All you need to do is listen and feel. No one in opera loves more selflessly than Leonora, or more enviously than di Luna. No one is ready to defend the women in his life more heroically than Manrico, and there is certainly no character more obsessed by guilt and revenge than Azucena. If we were simply to read the story we might be bewildered by the twists and turns of the improbable plot. Yet Verdi provided us here with some of the most memorable music in the repertoire, with vocal lines both beautiful and dramatic. With his keen sense of theater, he was able to see in Gutierrez’s play all the elements he needed to make a hit. Even Verdi himself was surprised, though, at the speed with which the opera conquered the world. Within a year at had been heard at over thirty theaters in Italy alone, and within a decade it had been performed literally all over the globe, including in such unlikely operatic centers as Bombay, Charlotte Amalie, and Honolulu!
Il trovatore is very much focused on singing instead of stage action. Unusually for a Verdi opera, most of the action of the story is described rather than played in view of the audience. For this reason it is especially well-suited to a semi-staged presentation. After the success of last season’s semi-staged Faust, Timothy Myers and I decided to do something similar with this piece. In this production from David Paul we’ll see the principals acting in costume and with props, but without big pieces of scenery behind them.
From the sound of Manrico’s harp to the clang of the gypsies’ anvils, Il trovatore is a special treat. Enjoy the show!