Video-on-Demand: Le TrouvèreNeuinszenierung

The story intertwines themes of war, revenge and love between two unknowingly estranged brothers, the Comte de Luna and the troubadour Manrique, who both love Léonore. Raised by the gypsy Azucena, Manrique becomes part of her quest to avenge her mother’s death at the hands of Luna’s father, a revenge rooted in mistaken identity. Can the true family bonds be revealed in time before blood is spilled?

When Verdi first read García Gutiérrez's play El trovador, it was the strong situations and the characters, especially the gypsy Azucena, that fired his imagination: he saw in the bizarre plot and the insane passions of the protagonists a pretext for more operatic boldness along the lines of Rigoletto. The collaboration between Verdi and his librettist Cammarano was a happy one; so, all the more sad then, that the latter died in July 1852, when composition was still at an early stage. The success of the premiere in 1853 in Rome surpassed even that of Rigoletto, and the speed with which Il trovatore swept the world, literally from Scotland to the South Pacific, was even more sensational. In 1856, Verdi was commissioned to adapt Il trovatore for the Paris Opéra by adding an extended ballet to Act III. Making other musical revisions, Verdi himself conducted the premiere in January 1857 and it is the version which is a highlight at this year’s Wexford Festival Opera, Ireland’s home for the rediscovery of the more rarely staged corners of the operatic repertoire.

Recorded on 17.10.2025