Omaggio all' Arena di Verona - Il Trovatore - Giuseppe Verdi / Complete Opera - 2 CD / Orchestra e Coro del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, cond. Tullio Serafin / M. Callas, G. Lauri Volpi, C. Elmo / Azzurra Music Srl 2x Audio CD 2002 / GI122/2

UPC 8028980078125

Il trovatore ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El trovador (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was Gutiérrez's most successful play, one which Verdi scholar Julian Budden describes as "a high flown, sprawling melodrama flamboyantly defiant of the Aristotelian unities, packed with all manner of fantastic and bizarre incident."

The premiere took place at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 19 January 1853, where it "began a victorious march throughout the operatic world," a success due to Verdi's work over the previous three years. It began with his January 1850 approach to Cammarano with the idea of Il trovatore. There followed, slowly and with interruptions, the preparation of the libretto, first by Cammarano until his death in mid-1852 and then with the young librettist Leone Emanuele Bardare, which gave the composer the opportunity to propose significant revisions, which were accomplished under his direction. These revisions are seen largely in the expansion of the role of Leonora.

For Verdi, the three years were filled with musical activity; work on this opera did not proceed while the composer wrote and premiered Rigoletto in Venice in March 1851. His personal affairs also limited his professional work. In May 1851, an additional commission was offered by the Venice company after Rigoletto's success there. Another commission came from Paris while he was visiting that city from late 1851 to March 1852. Before the libretto for Il trovatore was completed, before it was scored, and before it premiered, Verdi had four operatic projects in various stages of development.

Today, Il trovatore is performed frequently and is a staple of the standard operatic repertoire.

Tracklist:

Il Trovatore

Giuseppe Verdi

Leonora

Maria Callas

Manrico

Giacomo Lauri-Volpi

Azucena

Cloe Elmo

Il Conte Di Luna

Paolo Silveri

Ferrando

Italo Tajo

Ines

Teresa De Rosa

Ruiz

Luciano Della Pergola

Un Vecchio Zingaro

Gerardo Gaudioso

Un Messo

Gianni Avolanti

• Orchestra - Orchestra e Coro Teatro San Carlo
• Conductor - Tullio Serafin