2h 12min | Music | Episode aired 15 October 1988
Troubadour Manrico, kidnapped and raised by gypsy Azucena, courts Leonora and she loves him. Count di Luna wants Leonora, vows to destroy Manrico, not knowing they are actually brothers.
Director: Brian Large
Conductor: James Levine
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254831
First performance at Rome, January 19, 1853
Place: Biscay and Aragon
Famous arias: Miserere, Home to Our Mountains, The Anvil Chorus, The Tempest of the Heart. I'm not sure I know 2 of the 4.
One of the Anvil bangers looked a lot like Harpo Marx, and they focused on him for a while. HM is long dead at this point, but I wonder if this was intentional, an homage to A Night at the Opera (1935), which stages Il trovatore, and 4 arias are listed in the Soundtracks.
LP really can act, and of course sings amazingly well with a distinctive voice. Here he had to sing from offstage a couple of times, and there was not extra mic for him back there. If I understood Italian, I suspect I would have been able to make out every word.
EM (b.'43) looks too old for the part, but sings well. (NB: LP (b. '35) didn't invoke that thought. His beard hides the face and neck signs that showed on EM.)
SM is always a welcome presence both visually & vocally.
The opera opens with JW, and he sings again later. He has few IMDb credits. Perhaps he has more than they list.
The staging is too dark, as are the costumes, but the costumes are very pretty in their dark way, with lots of gold brocade patterns, and something sparkly about Leonora's first gown. The darkness does not obscure faces; it's just the set, or lack thereof.
LEONORA, lady-in-waiting to Princess of Aragon Soprano : Éva Marton
AZUCENA, a Biscayan gypsy woman Mezzo-soprano : Dolora Zajick
MANRICO, a chieftain under the Prince of Biscay and reputed son of Azucena Tenor : Luciano Pavarotti
COUNT DI LUNA, a young noble of Aragon Baritone : Sherrill Milnes
FERRANDO, Di Luna’s Captain of the Guard Bass : Jeffrey Wells
INEZ, confidante of Leonora Soprano : Loretta Di Franco
RUIZ, a soldier in Manrico’s service Tenor : Mark Baker
Met Opera, cond. Levine; 8
