Il Trovatore Guide

7/31/2019 Il Trovatore Guide

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Photo by Michal Daniel for Minnesota Opera

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TrovaToreB y G i u s e p p e V e r d i

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intrOductiOn

Sometimes its all about the singing. From its very beginning, operawas conceived o as a re-creation o the experience o the ancient Greektheater, where the purpose o the music was to heighten the sense o drama.But when conronted byIl rovatore, an opera which traditionally makesmost peoples lists o the most ridiculous opera plots, maybe its best to sitback and admire Verdis gi or melody and his ability to bring out the bestin the human voice. As the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso once remarked,

staging Il rovatore is easy all you need are the our greatest singers in theworld.

Sandwiched between the lm-noir darkness oRigoletto and thesocial protest oLa raviata, Il rovatore tends to strike many audiencestoday as a regression to an earlier style o musical drama. Such was not thecase in Verdis time, however, when the opera was an immediate successand helped establish Verdis reputation in the U.S. Much o the problemstems rom the act that the story hinges on the switched-in-inancy ordiscovered identity moti that was a staple o the literature o the time, butseems articial by current standards. Te plots o Fieldings om Jones andDickens Oliver wistdepend on such revelations, and Mark wain used thebaby-switch seriously in Puddnhead Wilson to make an ironic commentaryon racial stereotypes. By the time Gilbert and Sullivan were in their hey-day, this idea had become a clich to be ridiculed, as in Te Gondoliers or,

more absurdly, in H.M.S. Pinaore, where the switch involves two men ovastly dierent ages. On the other hand, the idea o a character learning thetruth about his birth still resonates today, as in Darth Vaders proclamation,Luke, I am your ather.

Many people today may have been introduced to Il rovatorethrough the Marx BrothersA Night at the Opera, the climactic scene o

which takes place during a perormance o this opera (with anincongruously happy ending) in which Harpo plays the Anvil Chorus on aset o horseshoes. Film critic Pauline Kael once remarked that, Te MarxBrothers did to Il rovatore what Il rovatore deserved to have done toit. Te use o this work in a lm about opera, however, does not seem somuch an attempt to lampoon the opera itsel as it is a recognition that or


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many people, Il rovatore is the iconic opera. As early as 1861, an article inDwights Journal o Music remarked, Il rovatore is almost the only opera. Itstands or all operas.

I the story o this opera no longer excites us, the problem lies notin Verdi and Cammaraos writing but in audiences changing tastes. TeRomantic era in which the opera was conceived liked its heroes and villainslarger than lie. Verdi himsel took the subject very seriously, writing to hislibrettist It would be better to give up the subject i we cannot manage to

sustain all the boldness and novelty o the Spanish play. Opera historianFrancis oye writes, It has been reproached with vulgarity, and thereproach is not unounded. But the vulgarity is the vulgarity o greatness, aby-product o the vitality and passion without which there can be no greatart. In the words o opera commentator M. Owen Lee, Caught in theirxed attitudes, these characters are not, nor are they meant to be, true tolie. Tey are emotionally charged symbols o lies ironies. At the time the

opera was rst produced, audiences wanted works with spectacular actionand vivid characterizations and were less concerned with logic and realism.

And as or that illogic which has caused so much ridicule to beheaped on the opera a mother throwing the wrong baby into the re. AsI was writing this, a video was circulating on the internet showing a babybarely escaping death when his caretaker inexplicably placed him in awashing machine at the laundromat. But o course, as Mark wain oncesaid, ruth is stranger than ction because ction has to stick topossibilities.


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cHaracterS

Ferrando (Bass) Count di Lunas captain o the guard(fer-RAHN-do)

Ines (Soprano) Companion to Leonora(EE-nez)

Leonora (Soprano) Lady in Waiting to the Princess o Aragon(lay-oh-NO-rah)

Count di Luna (Baritone) Nobleman o Aragon

Manrico (enor) a Biscayan chieain(mahn-REE-ko)

Azucena (Mezzo-Soprano) a Biscayan gypsy

(ah-zoo-CHAY-nah)

Ruiz (enor) one o Manricos soldiers

An Old Gypsy(Bass)

Messenger (enor)

Chorus o soldiers, etc, or both sides in the confict


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tHe StOry

Te action o the story takes place in eenth century Spain.Verdi and Cammarano divided the play into our parts (not acts), each witha subtitle o its own. Each part is divided into two scenes.

part i: tHe dueL

Scene 1: Late night: the Castle o AliaeriaWhereas in earlier times every opera opened with an overture, by

the time oIl rovatores debut, composers generally preerred to get rightinto the action. Accordingly, Verdi composed a brie prelude, starting withthe sound o the tympani, ollowed by horns, symbolic o the ongoing civilwar which underlies the conficts in the opera. A contingent o soldiers isonstage. Ferrando, their captain, enters, telling them to be on guard. Notonly are they protecting the castle; they are also watching or themysterious troubadour who has been serenading Leonora, with whom theCount di Luna is inatuated. Te term troubadour, incidentally, is usedsomewhat loosely here, since the term generally reerred to nobles who sangor the entertainment o members o the court.

Te soldiers tell Ferrando that they are sleepy, and they ask or astory to keep them awake. Te story they request is o the murder o theCounts younger brother, a story which they apparently have heard beore.Tis device o having one character tell another something the listener

already knows in order to impart inormation to the audience, thoughcurrently considered articial, was standard practice in the nineteenthcentury. Starting with a dramatic narrative which develops into a ormalaria, with alternating slow and ast sections, Ferrando recounts how, whenthe Counts baby brother was sleeping, a gypsy woman was discoveredhovering over the baby. While she protested that she was only trying toprovide the child with a horoscope, the old Count believed she was casting

a spell on the child and ordered her to be burned at the stake as a witch.When the old woman was dying, she cried out or revenge, and herdaughter threw the child into the re. Amid the conusion, the daughterescaped. He suggests that the spirit o the old woman may still be hauntingthe castle, and the chorus, sharing the racist stereotype upon whichFerrando has played, runs with the idea, relating sightings o the variousanimals into which she has transposed hersel. Tey exit the stage as twelvequick chimes indicate the midnight hour.


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part ii: tHe GypSy

Scene 1: Some time aferward, early morning: Te mountains o BiscayTe curtain rises on a band o Gypsies as the orchestra plays the

introduction to the most instantly recognizable music rom this opera, theamous Anvil Chorus. Here Verdi ollows a long-established conventiono using grace notes and triangles to denote Gypsy music. (Te best-knownexample o this device is the opening o the second act o Bizets Carmen,written several years later). Te men sing a work song, pounding theiranvils in time to the music. Unlike the Gypsies in Carmen, Verdis Gypsies

work or a living. Some people have noted that Gilbert and Sullivans ComeFriends who Plow the Sea rom Te Pirates o Penzance (better known toAmericans as Hail, Hail the Gangs All Here) appears to be a variant othis chorus.

As the chorus ends, Azucena sings the aria Stride la vampa (thefames cry out), a description o a woman being burned at the stake, though

Cammarano ails to provide any motivation or her decision to dampenthe mood at this point, other than to provide inormation or the audience.Tis aria represented a major advance in the development o the dramaticpotential o the mezzo-soprano voice (more on this later). Verdi consideredAzucena so central to the action o the opera that he originally consideredmaking her the lead character and naming the opera aer her instead oManrico.

Stride la vampa is meant to be a song that is, the characters onstage, as well as the audience, hear it as such. She goes on to explain themeaning o the song; she is describing the death o her own mother, and werealize she is the daughter we heard o in the opening scene. She reveals thatthe baby thrown into the re, however, was not Count di Lunas brother,but her own inant, whom she had mistaken or the Counts brother in theconusion o the moment. Manrico, who has been listening, is horried,

and he begins to wonder i he is really her son, but she evades his question.We now learn the outcome o the duel. Manrico had won but claims that aheavenly voice had told him to spare the Counts lie, aer which the Countand his men attacked him, leaving him or dead. Azucena had ound himand nursed him back to health. She berates him or his generosity insparing the Counts lie.


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Tough as we have mentioned Il rovatore has been consideredold-ashioned in contrast to Verdis other operas rom the same period, theduet between mother and son is a wonderul example o Verdis ability tocompose dramatic dialogue and o his increased emphasis on writingensembles instead o stand-alone solo arias.

A horn sounds, announcing the arrival o a messenger. Manricolearns that Leonora, believing him dead, has decided to join a convent.Despite Azucenas pleading or him to remain with her, Manrico goes o to

rescue Leonora rom the cloistered lie.

Scene 2: Outside a conventTe Count, Ferrando, and some o their ollowers enter. We learn

that, like Manrico, the Count means to stop Leonora rom taking her vows.Te Count had assumed that with his rival (supposedly) dead, Leonorawould be his, and he has no intention o allowing the church to stand in his

way. His aria Il balen del suo sorriso ollows a similar structure to that oLeonora heard earlier. Aer an introductory recitative passage, the melodyturns lyrical, and his expression o love is accompanied by the same type oso accompaniment we heard in Leonoras aria. Bells are heard indicatingthe beginning o the ceremony, and aer a brie discussion with Ferrandoabout the dangers o his enterprise (the transitional section), he launchesinto a cabaletta expressing not joy but his resolve that not even God, hisrival or Leonoras hand, can deeat him now.

Some listeners may nd it strange that Count di Luna, the villaino the opera, should be given such a tender, sincere love song, but Verdiclearly understood the complexity o human emotions and realized thateven a man like the Count could experience true love. Furthermore, theCount is not necessarily an evil character. In his eyes, Manrico, as a ollowero the rebel cause, is a traitor and he, the Count, is deending the social

order. In the end, we will come to see him as much a tragic character asRigoletto.

Leonora enters with the nuns and the other initiates. She says thatshe is choosing this course o action because she expects to be reunitedwith Manrico aer death. Te Count interrupts the ceremony to claim hisbride, only to be interrupted himsel by Manrico, who has arrived with


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superior numbers and soon subdues his rival. Leonora is overjoyed to learnthat Manrico is alive, and her joy is expressed in excited triplets which maybring to mind Gildas exclamations in the amous Rigoletto quartet.Beginning with this, Verdi builds one o his greatest ensembles as thevarious characters and the chorus simultaneously tell us what is on theirminds. Inexplicably, Manrico spares the Counts lie again and exits with hisbeloved as the curtain alls.

Incidentally, in the original play Manrico rescues Leonora aer she

has taken her vows. Te idea o a nun deserting her position would havebeen too oensive to get by the censors, so in the opera the abduction takesplace beore Leonora has irrevocably committed hersel to the cloisteredlie.

part iii: tHe GypSyS SOn

Scene 1: Count di Lunas camp, near Castillor

Martial music in the orchestra, soon echoed by the chorus,introduces the action, where the Counts army is anticipating the next daysbattle, in which they hope to retake Castillor, which has allen into rebelhands. Count di Luna enters. For him, the raid is more personal since hehopes to take Leonora by orce rom Manrico.

Soldiers come in dragging Azucena, whom they do not yetrecognize, behind them. She had been seen wandering around the campand they suspect her o spying. She sings plaintively, in time, that sheis merely wandering, as Gypsies do, and that she is looking or her son.Picking up her melody, the Count and Ferrando begin to question her, andFerrando nally recognizes her as the woman who killed the Counts inantbrother. Te Count orders her to be burned at the stake, and she cries outor Manrico to save her. Te Count, who had not previously known o therelationship between her and Manrico, exults. In an ensemble which in

essence unctions as a caballetta or the entire scene, Azucena curses hercaptors while they condemn her as a murderer. Tey lead her ostage as theorchestra, heavy on the brass, concludes the scene.


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Scene 2: Te chapel o the castle o CastillorAer some brie dialogue, in which we learn that Manrico and his

troops are preparing or the battle which Manrico is condent o winning,he serenades Leonora with the aria Ah si, ben mio (Ah yes, my love). It isa simple, lyrical tune to which he expresses his hopes or their impendingmarriage, which is to take place that day, and he says that should he die inbattle he can take consolation that they will be reunited in heaven.Manricos solo is ollowed by a duet between the two, as they look orwardto their wedding. Ruiz, however, interrupts them with the news that

Azucena has been captured and is about to be burned at the stake. Leonoracannot understand Manricos reaction, and he reveals to her or the rsttime that he is Azucenas son, and that rescuing her must thereore takeprecedence over their wedding. Manrico marshals the troops with thethrilling cabaletta Di quella pira (Te fames o the re), and the chorusresponds enthusiastically to the challenge, especially to Manricosinterspersed high note which has become conventional despite its not being

in the printed score. Te men rush o to battle as the scene ends.

part iV: tHe executiOn

Scene 1: Te Palace o AliaeriaPerhaps our introduction to this nal section should have a

warning sign: Plot Holes Ahead. In act, many members o the audiencemight well be tempted at this point to turn o the subtitles screen andsit back to enjoy some o the greatest music ever written or the dramaticsoprano voice, topped o with one o the baritone/soprano duets or whichVerdi was justly amous.

Since the previous scene, the Counts orces have triumphed andhave taken Manrico captive. For some reason that is never explained,Azucenas execution has been postponed. A brie gloomy passage in theorchestra sets the nocturnal scene. Leonora and Ruiz enter. Le alone, she

sings o her resolve to ree Manrico. A chorus in the background is heardsinging the Miserere, praying or the soul o the man who is about to die(their presence is never really explained). Manrico is heard ostage, longingor death to come already and bidding arewell to Leonora. Te threeelements blend into a masterul ensemble. Leonoras melody, with theorchestra beating out a slow steady rhythm, sounds much like a uneralmarch. We learn that she is carrying poison (inside a nger ring), to


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commit suicide i necessary to carry out her plan. In a cabaletta, she rejoicesthat she and Manrico will someday be united in Paradise.

Hearing the Count coming, she hides, and she hears the Countorder the execution o both Manrico and Azucena. Coming out o hiding,she conronts the Count. First she asks or mercy, and when that ails sheoers to die in place o Manrico. When that oer is reused, she plays hertrump card she oers her body (presumably in marriage, though this isnot stated directly) in exchange or Manricos reedom. Te Count exults

that at last he will possess the object o his aection, and he agrees. Ocourse, such bargains are a common theme in olklore, and such anagreement lies at the heart o Puccinis osca. Here, however, the Countseems ready to honor his pledge, or Manrico would presumably be on hisway home beore the aair is consummated. Leonora, however, is so averseto the Counts advances that she drinks the poison. Te two join in anexultant cabaletta. Te Count rejoices that he will have Leonora at last,

while she rejoices that she has been able to give her lie to save her beloved,and the scene comes to a triumphant conclusion. O course, it does seemincongruous that Leonora would be in such a rush to poison hersel,running the risk o dying beore Manrico could be ree. In act, it is herdeath that ultimately seals Manricos ate. Also, she knows that Manricorisked his lie to save Azucena. Would he desert her now to save his ownlie? Hopeully, the intensity o the music will brush these doubts rom ourminds.

Scene 2: A prison cellA series o slow, somber chords sets the mood. Azucena and

Manrico are in chains. Azucena says that she is dying, but she stillremembers her mothers death and ears death at the stake. Teir extendeddialogue soon becomes a duet in which Azucena dreams o escape to theirold lie while Manrico urges her to get some sleep.

Leonora enters and tells Manrico he is ree, but he guesses the priceshe paid and says he would rather die. He berates her or her indelity,without a touch o gratitude or her courage in saving his lie. In thebackground, Azucena continues to antasize about a return to the country.Manrico is so caught up in his anger and sel-pity that he has totallyorgotten about his mothers welare. (Even i he wants to die, why not try


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to ree her?) Finally, Leonora reveals the truth, and she and Manrico havea brie reconciliation as she dies, while the Count, realizing that she preersdeath to lie with him, joins his voice with theirs in a dramatic trio. WithLeonora dead, he has no reason to keep Manrico alive, and he orders hisimmediate execution. He tells Azucena that Manrico is dead, and she criesout, You have killed your brother. Yet I live, the Count replies in horror,while Azucena cries out, Mother, you are avenged as the curtain alls.

Tere has been much discussion pertaining the Azucenas

motivation in the nal scenes. She probably could have saved bothManricos lie and her own i she had revealed the truth about Manricosbirth, or the Count would not have knowingly killed his brother and wouldhave had no reason to kill Azucena i he knew it was her own baby she hadkilled. Tis ambiguity, however, may actually have been Verdis intention,as he instructed Cammarano, You must conserve to the very end the twopassions o this woman: her love or Manrico and her desire or revenge.

One thing is certain: Azucena is not mentally ill. Tough mad scenes werepopular in the nineteenth century as an opportunity or a vocalist to showo her vocal skills, Verdi specically instructed Cammarano that Azucenais not mad. Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz sees Azucena as atragic gure similar to the protagonist o Verdis previous opera: Te nalhorror or both Rigoletto and Azucena is that they believe they are strikinga blow or justice, but at the end they see their children lying dead.


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GiuSeppe Verdi and tHe creatiOn Of Il TrovaTore

Perhaps opera historian Peter Conrad said it best when he declared,Verdi set the entire world to music. From intimate amily dramas tolarge-scale international conficts, no one composer encompassed so mucho lie as did Giuseppe Verdi.

Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1853 in the small Italian village oRoncole, now part o Italy but under French control at that time. As has

been the case with most great composers, his musical talents wererecognized at a young age, and he soon moved to nearby Busetto to pursuehis music studies under the watchul eye o an arts patron namedAntonio Barezzi. During the course o his studies, he ell in love with andmarried Barezzis daughter, Margherita. But during the tumultuous yearsthat ollowed (1838-1840), his lie turned tragic as disease claimed the liveso both their children and later Margherita hersel. All this happened aboutthe time that the rst o his twenty-six operas, Oberto, was produced withmoderate success.

Verdis attempt to compose a comedy, Un giorna di regno, despitehis heartbreak, was less successul. He had all but decided to abandoncomposing when a riend virtually thrust a libretto at him and orced himto take it home to read. Te story, set in the Biblical time o the BabyloniaExile, contained one number which haunted Verdis imagination a chorus

o Israelites longing or their homeland. Tus was born Nabucco, whichwas to become a major success, and the rest is history. Te aorementionedchorus was called Va pensiero, and the audience understood that Verdiwas thinking not about ancient times but rather about the still unormedItalian nation, suering under the rule o various oreign powers. In the1840s Verdi composed several operas, most o which he realized were nothis best work, as economic necessity orced him to work more quickly than

he would have liked. He sometimes reerred to this period as the galleyyears. Perhaps his most notable achievement during this period was therst o his three Shakespearian operas,Macbeth, though he recognized it asa fawed masterpiece, and his revised version, written years later, is the onecommonly perormed today.


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In 1847, Verdi reconnected with Giuseppina Strepponi, who hadsung the lead emale role in Nabucco but had recently retired rom the stagedue to voice problems. She was to become the second love o his lie, andthe couple began living together shortly aerward, though they scandalizedthe neighbors by avoiding the marriage alter or over a decade, perhaps dueto Verdis dislike o the church. In particular, he was criticized by his ormerpatron and ather-in-law, Barezzi, prompting the reply, In my house lives aree, independent woman.

Tere can be little doubt that in Giuseppina, whose very name wasthe eminine orm o Verdis own, the composer had ound a genuinesoul-mate. She was a woman o great intellect, who had genuine input intothe creation o Verdis operas. Te two married in 1859 and remainedtogether until her death in 1897.

It was during the 1850s that Verdis genius truly maniested itsel.

Rigoletto (1851) represented a major advance in the art o dramaticstory-telling through music. While working on the production o thatopera, Verdi became interested in the Spanish playEl rovadorand beganto take steps to adapt it or the operatic stage.

In Stephen SondheimsMerrily We Roll Along, a Broadwaylibrettist is asked Which comes rst, the music or the lyrics? to which hereplies, Te contract. Te success oRigoletto had enabled Verdi to reach

a stage in his career where he could conceive o a project beore obtaining acontract a luxury never enjoyed by Mozart, or example, who never wrotea piece o music without rst obtaining a commission. For the libretto, hecontacted Salvatore Cammarano, with whom he had collaborated on threeearlier works.

Verdis correspondence with Cammarano indicates that he was

trying to take operatic composition in a new direction: I in opera therewere no cavatinas or duets or trios or choruses or nales etc. and the wholeopera were only a single number, I would nd this most reasonable andright. Some critics have blamed Cammaranos artistic conservatism or theact that this ideal is not even closely realized in Il rovatore, but it might bemore accurate to say that the play itsel was not a good subject or this novelapproach. As it was, Camarrano had to greatly condense the action and


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eliminate several characters rom the original to create a workable libretto.It was only at the end o his career, when Verdi was ree o nancial andcommercial restraints, that he was to achieve this ideal in Falstaf.

Progress on the opera stalled in July, 1852 when the librettist diedsuddenly, leaving the libretto unnished, though the bulk o the workhad already been done. A young playwright, Leone Emanuele Bardare,was hired to complete the work, though out o respect or Cammarano,Bardares name was not included on the printed libretto. With a touch o

generosity typical o Verdi, he paid Camarranos widow more than thepreviously contracted sum or the incomplete libretto.

For the premiere, Verdi chose Rome, because only there could hend a singer whom he considered adequate or the role o Azucena. Teopening on January 19, 1853 was an unqualied triumph. By the thirdperormance, it had become such a sensation that members o the audience

escorted the composer to his quarters with a torchlight parade andserenaded him through much o the night with a band that played melodiesrom his operas. Some years later Verdi wrote, Go the Indes or the heart oArica, and you will hear Il rovatore. Te Paris premiere at that citysItalian Opera theater came in 1855, and two years later a revised,French-language version, Le rouvere, premiered at the Paris Opera. It wasIl rovatore which cemented Verdis reputation in the United States as well.Perhaps as a tribute to its popularity, it soon became the subject onumerous theatrical parodies, at least one o which was attended by thecomposer himsel.

While working on Il rovatore, Verdi had also been composing Laraviata, which initially received a less enthusiastic reception due to a weakcast, though Verdis perectionism caused him to exaggerate the allegedailure o the rst production. Te work soon came to be recognized as the

masterpiece is it considered to be to this day.

In the years which ollowed, Verdi continued to advance the art oopera, gradually abandoning the hit song approach in avor o thecontinuous style o music he had written o in his correspondence withCammarano. Among his later triumphs were Simon Boccanegra (1857),A Masked Ball(1859), Te Force o Destiny(1862), Don Carlo (1867), and


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Aida (1871), aer which he attempted to retire rom composing, only to bedrawn out o retirement een years later, when he had the opportunity ocollaborating with the great librettist Arregio Boito on two adaptations oShakespeares plays, Othello and Falstaf.

Italians today revere Verdi not only as a composer but also as agreat Italian patriot, who was deeply concerned or the uture o a nationwhich, throughout much o his lie, was actually a conglomeration oseveral separate states linked only by geographical proximity and

linguistic ties. He was active in the Risorgimento, a movement calling orthe establishment o an Italian nation. Because o the role his music hadplayed in supporting this movement, he was selected to serve in the Italianparliament, which he did briefy, though he played a largely ceremonial role.Several o his operas refect the goals o the Risorgimento: the Va pensierochorus oNabucco (previously discussed), the Patria opressa chorus romMacbeth, cries o Viva Italia in La battaglie di Legnano, and the scene in

Simon Boccanegra in which the title character admonishes his senate thattheir loyalty must be to Italy, not Venice.

In his nal years, Verdi devoted much o his time to theestablishment o a retirement home or opera singers, an institution thatstands to this day. He died in January, 1901, and while he had asked or asimple uneral, when his body (along with Strepponis) was transerred toRome the ollowing month, a national day o mourning was declared andmourners lined the streets. Spontaneously, they joined together to sing thesong which had rst united them in love o Italy Va pensiero.


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tHe StOryteLLerS

Salvatore Cammarano, who wrote the libretto or Il rovatore, wasborn in Naples on March 19, 1801. As a young man he enjoyed an activecareer in the theater, initially as a writer o spoken plays. In his earlythirties he secured the position o stage director at the royal theaters inNaples, which gave him the opportunity to hone his skills a playwright. Herst became involved in opera revising the works o others, but he soonturned to libretto writing on his own.

His early attempts at such writing went nowhere, but in 1835 heachieved his rst mega-hit when he collaborated with Gaetano Donizetti onLucia di Lammermoor, and rom that time on he became one o Italys mostsought-aer librettists. He had several more collaborations with Donizetti,most notablyPoliuto and Roberto Devereux, and he provided a number olibrettos or Pacini (not to be conused with Puccini) and Mercadante, twoo the most popular composers o their time, though their works are rarelyproduced today.

Alzira (1845) was his rst collaboration with Verdi, and heollowed it with the librettos or La battaglia di Legnano and Luisa Miller,both in 1849. Il rovatore is one o two works, along with Lucia, or whichhe is primarily remembered today. He had also been working on a librettoor Verdis planned operatic treatment oKing Lear, a project which the

composer considered or much o his career but never completed.

Te composers with whom Cammarano worked showed greatrespect or his skill and rarely demanded extensive revisions as they didor other librettists. Tough he never created a libretto rom whole cloth,preerring to adapt existing stories, his knowledge o stagecra enabled himto breathe new lie into old tales.

Cammarano died July 17, 1852, in Naples, leaving the libretto oIlrovatore unnished.

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, upon whose playIl rovatore is based,was born in Spain on October 4, 1813. Aer briefy studying medicine, hemoved to Madrid in 1833 and earned his living as a translator while writing


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El rovador, which had its premiere in 1836. Tis immediately earned himthe reputation as one o the leading playwrights o the Romantic era. His1843 playSimon Boccanegra was also adapted into an opera by Verdi.

In the late 1840s he emigrated to the Western hemisphere, workingas a journalist in both Cuba and Mexico, until his return to Spain in 1850,where he continued his writing while directing an archeological museumin Madrid. oday he is regarded as one o the leading Spanish dramatists othe nineteenth century. He died in Madrid on August 26, 1884.


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VerdiS VOcaL StyLe

One o the principal reasons that Verdi has been so infuential is hiscontribution to the development o the various voice types. Il rovatore waspivotal in opera history because it was here that the composer introducedthe Verdi mezzo in the person o Azucena. More than any othercomposer, Verdi developed the mezzo (deep emale voice) as a distinctvocal type, rather than just a soprano with low notes. Whereas Rossini,who prior to Verdi was the most prominent composer or the mezzo voice,

ocused on the agility o the voice, Verdi exploited its dramatic potential.Sopranos sometimes tackle Rossini mezzo roles, such as that o Rosina inTe Barber o Seville. No soprano, however, would ever be cast as Azucena.Opera critic Anne Midgette calls Azucena an antihero, like Rigoletto:Neither could have been personied by a soprano or a tenor. Azucena wasthe rst in a long line o Verdi mezzos including the Gypsies Ulrica(actually a contralto, an even deeper voice) inA Masked Balland Preziosillain Te Force o Destiny. He continued with Eboli in Don Carlo andAmneris inAida.

Leonora is one o the earliest dramatic sopranos, with a style omusic requiring a deeper resonance than that o the coloratura songbirdso an earlier era. At this point, Verdi had not totally abandoned the earlierstyle o writing. Gilda, in Rigoletto, is a classic bel-canto coloratura singerand Violetta, in La raviata, has some elements o the old style as well.

Leonora, on the other hand, is a purely dramatic soprano, a ore-runner oAida, Amelia, and Desdemona.

On the masculine side, Verdi was principally responsible or thedevelopment o the heroic tenor voice that made tenors the superstars othe operatic world, down to the recent Tree enors phenomenon. In thewords o opera critic Rodolo Celletti, Te Verdi tenor symbolizes noble

youth in rebellion against an evil social and political orderor strugglingagainst class prejudicesagainst racial prejudices. Manricos courageouspersonality represents the Verdi tenor in all his glory. Verdi also expectedmore o his tenors than had earlier composers. Bellini and Donizetti wrotemusic with even more high notes, but during their era, tenors sang thosehigh notes in a alsetto voice, whereas the dramatic demands o Verdismusic required these high notes to be expressed at ull power.


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Verdi also made signicant use o the lower-voiced male singers.Basses sometimes represented villains, such as Sparaucile in Rigoletto.More signicant was the Verdi baritone, whose potential Verdi exploited orits dramatic possibilities. Count di Luna is the prototypical Verdi baritone.Because they carry such dramatic weight, Verdi baritones are generallyrequired to sing at a slightly higher pitch than those o earlier composers.


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tHe exOtic

Verdi appears to have been especially ascinated with Spain. Whilehe traveled extensively in connection with productions o his operas, Spainwas the only oreign country he visited just or pleasure. Il rovatore is oneo ve operas he set in that country, the others beingAlzira, Ernani, andDon Carlo (along with its French version, Don Carlos) and Te Force oDestiny. Peter Conrad stated that or Verdi, Spain was an overheatedextension o Italy a place o honor-bound vows and vendettas, with

mountains where gypsies wander and penitents punish the fesh in caves.In short, Spain is Italy with the veneer o civilization stripped away.

Paradoxically, while there is no real Spanish operatic traditionseveral composers have set operas there. (Spain does have a orm o musicaldrama called Zarzuella, but this is closer to operetta than to opera).Perhaps this is because Spain strikes them as an exotic locale, one notquite as remote as the Middle East or Orient. Te various operas based onBeaumarchais Figaro trilogy most amously, Rossinis Te Barber o Sevilleand Mozarts Te Marriage o Figaro are set in and around Seville. Perhapsthis locale appealed to Beaumarchais because it represented a somewhatmore primitive liestyle than his native France, one where women weresubjugated to men in ways supposedly alien to northern Europe (a majorplot point in the rst two plays). Mozart and Da Ponte returned to Sevilleor their second collaboration, Don Giovanni, seeing it as the ideal locale

or a ghost story. Te most amous opera with a Spanish locale, o course,is Bizets Carmen, an opera whose violent passions seem at home in thislocale. Other Spanish-themed operas o note include Massenets Le Cid,Beethovens Fidelio, Handels Rodrigo, Prokovievs Betrothal in a Monastery,and several adaptations o Spains most amous literary work, Don Quixote,most notably Massenets Don Quichotte and Mitch LeighsMan o LaMancha, a Broadway music drama that has enough operatic eatures to be

worthy o perormance by several opera companies, including a 1989 LyricOpera o Kansas City production.

Te other exotic element in this opera is the inclusion o a band oGypsies, a minority group that held a particular ascination or Verdi. Whilemany Europeans have been ascinated by this subculture o people who ormany years wandered through the world with little attachment to the


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nations in which they sojourned, ew opera composers other than Verdipaid them much attention. Given the popularity o Bizets Carmen, it issurprising to nd how rare Gypsies are in opera. Te hero o MascagnisLamico Fritzhas a Gypsy riend, and Johann Strauss II wrote an operettacalled Te Gypsy Baron, but most other examples are mere ootnotes in theannals o opera. (Emmerich Kalmans operetta Te Gypsy Princess is notabout real Gypsies. Madame Flora in Menottis Te Medium has manyoutward trappings o a Gypsy as bets her proession, but she is notidentied as an actual Gypsy).

It appears that Verdis compassion or oppressed people caused himto identiy with this ethnic group. Verdi most likely observed the itinerantGypsy traveling merchants and blacksmiths who traveled throughout thesmall towns o Italy when he was a child. Te opening scene oIl rovatoreappears to be intended to ridicule the superstitions people had aboutGypsies. Biscay, the region where Manrico and Azucena live, was more

hospitable to Gypsies than were other parts o Spain, which may explainManricos loyalty to the rebel cause.

Gypsies appear primarily as ortune-tellers, including Preziosilla inTe Force o Destinyand Ulrica inA Masked Ball. Gypsy dancers also appearin the party scene in La raviata, though it is not clear i they are a hiredGypsy dance troupe or merely party guests in disguise.

Given the tragic history o this ethnic group, which was virtuallywiped out in the Holocaust, maybe another great Gypsy opera lies in theuture.


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BiBLiOGrapHy

Berger, William. Verdi with a Vengeance. New York: Vintage, 2000.

Celletti, Rodolo. On Verdis Vocal Writing. In Te VerdiCompanion. Ed. William Weaver and Martin Chusid. New York: WWNorton & Co., 1979.

Conrad, Peter.A Song o Love and Death: Te Meaning o Opera.New York: Poseidon Press, 1987.

-----. Verdi and/or Wagner. London: Tames and Hudson, 2011.

Hughes, Spike. Famous Verdi Operas. Philadelphia: Chilton BookCo, 1968.

Lee, M. Owen.A Season o Opera. oronto: University o orontoPress, 1998.

Martin, George. Verdi: His Music, Lie and imes. New York: Dodd,Mead & Company, 1963.

McCants, Clyde . Rigoletto, rovatore and raviata: Verdis MiddlePeriod Masterpieces On and Of the Stage. Jeerson, NC: McFarland & Co.,2009.

Midgette, Anne. Bloodline. Opera News, 14 Feb. 1998. P. 28 .

Operacolorado.org. Te Playwright: Antonio Garcia Gurierrez.Osborne, Charles. Te Complete Operas o Verdi. New York: Alred

A. Knop, 1970.

Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane. Verdi: A Biography. Oxord, England:Oxord University Press, 1993.

-----. Wild Ting. Opera News. 14 Feb 1998. P. 14 .

Von Buchau, Stephanie. Verdis Il rovatore. (Chicago) LyricOpera Companion. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1991: 408-413.

Some portions o this booklet have been reprinted rom earlier booklets in this series.

Copyright 2012 by Lyric Opera o Kansas City

Il Trovatore Guide

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