Opera Explained: Verdi’s Il Trovatore (Audiobook CD)
Price: $13.00 / $10.40 Members: $9.36
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Item: 636943807927
Description
Opera Explained: Verdi’s Il Trovatore (Audiobook CD)
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Author: Thomson Smillie
Narrator: David Timson
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Naxos
CD Release Date: November 1, 2003
Run Time: 79 minutes
Il trovatore has been ruthlessly parodied. It is a tale of murder and mayhem, burned babies, roasted hags, would-be nuns, strolling minstrels and bad baritones. And indeed the libretto does call for a willing suspension of disbelief. The reward is in the music, a score as prodigally melodic as only the mature Verdi could write: the "Anvil" Chorus, the "Miserere" scene, two great tenor arias, a beautiful baritone aria - a richness without embarassment.
Opera Explained
This series introduces, in words and music, the plot and background of major operas. Using the principal themes and arias taken from the Naxos recording of the complete work, Thomson Smillie is informative yet entertaining, enabling the listener to get more from this remarkable art form.
History
Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore
One of the most enduringly popular operas in the repertoire, Il Trovatore was first seen at Rome’s Teatro Apollo in 1853. Together with Rigoletto and La Traviata, it forms the “trilogy” of works that premiered in rapid succession over a period of just two years and firmly established Verdi as the leading opera composer of his time. The challenges of Il Trovatore’s leading roles famously led Enrico Caruso to remark that all you needed to stage it were the “four best singers in the world.”
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