Title: Il trovatore
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Salvadore Cammarano
Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Production: Daniele Abbado
Set design: Graziano Gregori
Costume design: Carla Teti
Lighting design: Alessandro Carletti
Assistant stage director: Boris Stetka
Assistant set designer: Angelo Linzalata
Streaming date and time: 30 May 2025, 14:00 CET
Platform: Play Wiener Staatsoper (Free streaming)
Cast:
- Il Conte di Luna: Luca Salsi
- Leonora: Krassimira Stoyanova
- Azucena: Ekaterina Semenchuk
- Manrico: Piotr Beczała
- Ferrando: Dmitry Ulyanov
A war of blood and love
Verdi’s Il trovatore is one of the most gripping operas in the 19th-century repertoire. Its mix of dark family secrets, doomed love, and revenge has earned it enduring popularity on the world’s stages. In this 2023 production from the Wiener Staatsoper, director Daniele Abbado sets the action during the Spanish Civil War—avoiding strict historical realism to focus on the central theme of fraternal conflict as a national tragedy.
Under the baton of Marco Armiliato, the cast features star tenor Piotr Beczała as Manrico and Krassimira Stoyanova as Leonora, with Ekaterina Semenchuk delivering a harrowing Azucena. Verdi’s music—originally imagined as a modern through-composed opera—ultimately embraces the traditional forms that make Il trovatore an irresistible theatrical mosaic.
Overview
Act I
Count Luna once had an old gypsy burned at the stake, believing she had bewitched his younger brother. In retaliation, the gypsy’s daughter, Azucena, kidnapped the child. A burnt body was later found, but Luna’s father never believed his son was dead and charged Luna with finding his missing brother. Fifteen years later, a civil war rages. The troubadour Manrico, raised by Azucena, is on the opposing side—and unknowingly Luna’s brother. Both men love Leonora, who loves Manrico. In a mistaken encounter, she runs to Luna, thinking he is Manrico, and the rivalry turns deadly.
Acts II–III
Azucena, haunted by her mother’s execution, confesses she mistakenly burned her own son instead of Luna’s brother. Despite his doubts, Manrico accepts her as his mother. When Leonora hears Manrico has died, she plans to enter a convent. Luna tries to abduct her, but Manrico intervenes and escapes with her to the fortress of Castellor. Azucena is captured, and Manrico’s attempt to rescue her fails.
Act IV
Leonora offers herself to Luna in exchange for Manrico’s life but secretly takes poison. She dies in Manrico’s arms just before his execution. Only after Manrico is killed does Azucena reveal the truth: “He was your brother.”
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