Rigoletto, 2008 Photo: J. Reeder

Il trovatore

By Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, based on a play by Antonio García Gutiérrez

Time: 15th century
Place: Biscay and Aragon

Background: Spain, 1409, during a rebellion mounted by the Count of Urgel against the Prince of Aragon. Count Di Luna, a young Aragonese nobleman, is a commander in the Prince’s army, while Manrico, the young Troubadour, leads the army of Urgel. Count Di Luna and Manrico are rivals for the love of Leonora, a lady-in-waiting at the Aragonese court. Although they do not know it, Di Luna and Manrico are brothers who were separated from each other in childhood. 

Act I, Scene 1. Aragon. Night.

Ferrando, an old captain of the Aragonese guard, tells the guards the back-story of the opera. About twenty-five years earlier, a gypsy woman had been burned as a witch for casting an evil spell on Garzia, Di Luna’s infant brother. Before dying, the gypsy ordered Azucena, her young daughter, to avenge her, so Azucena kidnapped the baby, Garzia, for revenge. Everyone believed she threw him onto the pyre where her mother died, for a baby’s remains were found in the ashes after the flames died down.

Scene 2. Night. Palace gardens of the rulers of Aragon.

Leonora, a lady-in-waiting to the Princess, tells her handmaiden that she loves Manrico, the Troubadour, who serenades her at night. She swears she will die if she cannot be with him. The two women leave. Di Luna, also in love with Leonora, enters the garden in the hope of seeing her. Manrico is heard offstage, singing a troubadour serenade. Leonora rushes out to meet him. He enters, but in the darkness she mistakes Di Luna for her lover. Then Leonora convinces Manrico that he is the man she loves. She stands by as Manrico and Di Luna prepare to fight.

Act II, Scene 1. Biscay, a rough camp in the mountains.

The gypsies sing of gypsy women and their beauty. Manrico, wounded by Di Luna, has been saved by Azucena, whom he believes to be his mother. Azucena tells of the horror of seeing her mother dying on the pyre and commanding her to get revenge. “Mi vendica,” she shrieked. “Avenge me.”  In a moment of madness, Azucena admits that she threw a baby into the flames, thinking it was Garzia Di Luna. In fact, though, she had murdered her own son. She then raised little Garzia as Manrico, a gypsy. This means Di Luna and Manrico are brothers, although only Azucena knows that. When Manrico questions her, she insists he is her son. When a messenger tells Manrico that Leonora is about to enter a convent, he rushes off to stop her so they can marry.

Scene 2. A convent near the fortress of Castellor. Night.

Di Luna and his guardsmen come to abduct Leonora to prevent her from entering the convent. He muses on his great love for her. Leonora appears with her weeping handmaidens and friends. As she prepares to take the veil, Di Luna’s men burst in to abduct her, only to be foiled by Manrico and his troops, who overpower Di Luna’s men. Manrico and Leonora rush out together.

Act III. Scene 1.  Di Luna’s military camp.

His forces are besieging Castellor, where Manrico and Leonora have taken refuge. Di Luna’s men drag in Azucena, whom they have found in the area. Ferrando recognizes her as the gypsy who kidnapped the infant Garzia Di Luna. Questioned by Count Di Luna, she cries out Manrico’s name and identifies him as her son. Di Luna orders her to be burned at the stake.

Scene 2. The fortress of Castellor.

Manrico and Leonora are together and are about to be married in a nearby chapel, but when a retainer tells Manrico that Azucena has been captured and condemned, he rushes away, after singing “Di quella pira,” this opera’s best known aria.

Act IV, Scene 1. The prison yard of Aliaferia Palace.

Manrico and Azucena are captives in the tower. Leonora enters, hoping that her love will comfort him in this dire hour. Monks chant a Miserere for those who are condemned to die, and Manrico’s voice is heard from the tower. He longs to die. Then Di Luna enters. Leonora begs him to spare Manrico. He will, on the condition that Leonora surrender to him. She consents, but while Di Luna is ordering Manrico’s release, she takes poison that is in her ring.

Scene 2. The prison cell in Aliaferia Palace, where Manrico and Azucena are being held.

Manrico tries to comfort Azucena; she sings of their home in the mountains and drifts off to sleep. Leonora enters, telling Manrico he is free, but when he discovers she has promised herself to Di Luna, he curses her. However, when he sees she is dying, he takes her in his arms. Leonora dies. Di Luna enters and orders Manrico’s execution. He is led off, but just as he is about to die, Azucena awakens to find him gone. Di Luna tells her that her son is about to be executed.  She begs Di Luna to listen to her and save him, but Di Luna will not listen.

The last lines of the opera: Di Luna: (dragging Azucena to the window) “Do you see that? He is dead!”  Azucena: He was your brother!
Di Luna: He? Oh, horror.  Azucena: Oh, Mother, you are avenged!
Di Luna: And I am still alive.

The curtain falls.

• Mary Jane Phillips-Matz

Return to the Opera Synopses page.

 

Opera New Jersey, Inc., PO Box 3151, Princeton, NJ 08543
(609) 799-7700 | Contact Us