Gypsy Azucena finally tells her adult son Manrico that he is the brother of his political and romantic rival, the Conte di Luna. The Conte strikes a bargain with Leonora (who loves Manrico): her hand in marriage for the life of Manrico.
Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Yuri Temirkanov
Stars: Claudio Sgura, Teresa Romano, Mzia Nioradze, Marcelo Álvarez.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2812788/
17th Verdi opera.
Premiere 1853, Teatro Apollo, Rome
Place: Biscay and Aragon (Spain)
Time: Fifteenth century
Filmed at Teatro Regio di Parma
Now that I've seen a few productions/performances, the story is clearer, so I submitted the outline above.
But that leaves out the history of Azucena's mother being burned at the stake by the Conte's father, her kidnapping the Conte's infant brother, accidentally throwing her own infant son into the flames instead of the Conte's brother, raising the Conte's brother as her own. It also omits Leonora intending to enter a convent when she believes Manrico is dead in battle, but both Conte and Manrico intercede, with Manrico taking her with him. We get an offstage battle or two between Conte's & Manrico's armies, and the capture of both Manrico and Azucena (who Conte has sought for his brother's death). Leonora takes poison rather than fulfill her bargain with Conte, so when she dies, he has Manrico executed. Azucena is a little happy, because her mother's death is now avenged by Conte having (unknowingly) executed his own brother. Oy Vey. If the music weren't so good, would this be a story people want to see?
Marcelo Álvarez is a familiar face and international star tenor (many Met in HD telecasts on IMDb). He sings well, overacts a bit, and is not eye candy, so I'm not enthused when I see him on the cast list, but it could be much worse, of course. Sgura as Conte is good, but now I've bonded a bit with D.Hvorostovsky from Met performances, whose name I got corrected on IMDb. Both female leads are fine as well.
The anvil chorus had only 1 anvil, which was nearly drowned out by the chorus. I prefer the multi-anvil version of the Met, especially since that invokes the Marx Bros film A Night at the Opera ('35).
The costumes were appropriate to the period, but the color choices were a bit too on the nose: red for gypsies, black for the Conte's men, white for Leonora.
The Great Course has ~1 chapter on this opera.
Per the 2012 featurette, without naming the source of world-wide most-performed rankings, this is 5th among Verdi's operas, 23rd among all operas. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics).
Unitel, cond. Temirkanov; 8-
