Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 5 Il Travatore

O P E R A N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O 28 | November 17 - December 9, 2018 The Peak of Excitement: Verdi's Stupendous Il trovatore By Gordon Williams O n occasion, Giuseppe Verdi would stress to his librettists that the opera they were working on could be summed up with one word. For Il trovatore , it was “vengeance,” highlighting the task entrusted to the gypsy woman Azucena by her dying mother (burned at the stake before the opera begins). From the audience’s point of view, however, another word sums up Il trovatore – “exciting.” Verdi’s eighteenth opera has been acclaimed for this quality since its premiere in 1853, even by those who criticize the plot. It may seem tasteless to describe an opera that involves vengeance, executions, and child-abduction as “exciting.” But the opera calls for thrilling singing from its principals, not just vocal pyrotechnics but immense emotional contrasts. Leonora, the heroine, must convey everything from emotional warmth and dulcet grace to penetrating determination. Azucena ranges from maternal love for Manrico, whom she has raised, to chilling resolve to avenge her executed mother. And the male leads must combine their testosterone-fueled competitiveness with gentler qualities, such as the tenderness in the Count’s aria “Il balen del suo sorriso” (comparing Leonora’s smile to the gleaming of stars), or Manrico’s “Ah sì, ben mio, coll’essere” (reassuring Leonora of their loving future even if death claims him). Il trovatore is an action-packed melodrama covering huge emotional territory against a colorful historical background. And there is spectacle. The “Miserere” scene in Act Four was much acclaimed in the 19th century. All at once on separate parts of the stage, Leonora bemoans the fate of her beloved Manrico as he bids farewell to life in a nostalgic- sounding song, against the murmuring of a chorus of monks praying for his soul. The 19th-century piano- virtuoso Franz Liszt honored this coup de théâtre in one of his famous concert “paraphrases,” a staple of the recital hall. Verdi consciously aimed for excitement in this opera. He suggested Antonio García Gutiérrez’s play El trovador (1836) as a subject because, as he wrote his librettist Salvadore Cammarano in April 1851, “it seemed to me to offer fine theatrical effects and above all something original and out of the ordinary.” 1 He could have mentioned all the different settings – palace, convent, gypsy- and military-camps, and a dungeon. And there are battlefields (offstage). Gutiérrez’s play is set against dramatic true events – the struggle between Ferdinand, Prince of Castile, and James, Count of Urgel, for the throne of Aragon in the early 1400s. But over and above this political drama, Gutiérrez’s play was in part romance (political rivals Manrico and the Count vying for Leonora’s love) as well as vengeance tale. It entranced contemporary Spanish audiences. Life events probably made Verdi susceptible to the play’s emotional darkness. His mother died in the summer of 1851. Cammarano’s death in July 1852 (although when the libretto was substantially completed) may have exacerbated his morbidity. But Verdi was no doubt also drawn to Azucena with her conflicting instincts for vengeance and for protection of Manrico, and to the play’s political dimension. And he certainly set out, intentionally, to create something innovative. As Verdi made clear to Cammarano in 1851, he wouldn’t mind dispensing with the usual subdivisions of Italian opera “and the whole work consisted, let’s say, of a single number.” 2 What Cammarano came up with, though, was fairly 1 Quoted in Budden, Julian, The Operas of Verdi, London 1978, p.61 2 Budden, again p. 61. Il trovatore at Lyric: (top) Manrico (Yonghoon Lee) is ready to rush to Leonora’s rescue; (bottom left) Leonora (Sondra Radvanovsky) offers herself to Count di Luna (Mark Delavan) in exchange for Manrico’s life; (bottom right) Manrico (Franco Corelli) hears Azucena (Grace Bumbry) retell the narrative of her mother’s death. MICHAEL BROSILOW DAN REST