Il Trovatore

Verdi's IL TROVATORE, performed on 22 June 2012 in the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, was the opera set to be broadcast for the VIVA EUROPA 2012 event.

It was sung by Sebastian Catana, María Agresta, Ekaterina Smenchuk, Jorge de León and Liang Li, and conducted by maestro Zubin Mehta.

Il Trovatore, together with La Traviata and Rigoletto, make up the trilogy of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular operas. This opera established Verdi as one of the most celebrated opera composers within the musical sphere.

Based on the Spanish romantic drama of the same title by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez and adapted for the lyrical scene by the Italian librettist Salvatore Cammarano, the story tells  the adventures, passions, intrigues, loves and misfortunes of the unfortunate hero (troubadour, lover and noble) in Vizcaya and Aragón at the turn of the XV century, after the uprising against Fernando de Antequera as a result of the Compromise of Caspe. The outcome can only be tragic, but the music is middle-period Verdi at its most flowing. It is precisely this almost unbroken melodiousness of Verdi’s score which is believed to be one of the keys to the immense popularity of the opera.