REVIEWS Verdi’s ‘Il Trovatore’: Sublime Love vs. Revenge iuseppe Verdi’s Il Trova- Manrico refuses to flee, Gtore was performed at the because he believes Leonora Kennedy Center by the Wash- has betrayed him by “selling” ington National Opera on her love for his freedom. As Nov. 11, 2004, more than 151 she dies from the self-inflicted years after its first performance poison, Manrico realizes the in Rome on Jan. 19, 1853. Il extent of her love for him. The Trovatore is part of a trilogy of Count arrives, realizes that operas composed by Verdi in Leonora has deceived him, his “middle” period, which and orders Manrico’s behead- includes Rigoletto (1851) and ing. Azucena, forced to watch, La Traviata (1853). Like Rigo- reveals the truth to him: “You r e letto, Il Trovatore demonstrates p have killed your brother.” o o the tragic consequences of a C n i r a Role of Leonora mentality based on revenge, K / a r and like La Traviata it empha- e When the original librettist p O l sizes the alternative sublime a Salvatore Cammarano died n o i t quality of selfless love, as a before completing the libretto, N n developed by the German o he was replaced by Leone t g n dramatist Friedrich Schiller. i Emanuele Bardare, among h s a The opera is based on an W whose tasks was an expansion 1836 drama about the Spanish Driven by the desire for revenge: Roberto Servile as Count di of the role of Leonora. Under civil war of 1412, by the Span- Luna, Elena Manistina as Azucena. Verdi’s supervision, her ish playwright Antonio Garcia cantabile “Tacea la notte” and Gutierrez. It is clear that Verdi is polemi- and the gypsy, Azucena, which ultimately the cavatina, “Di tale amor,” originally cizing in Il Trovatore against the bestial overwhelms all of leading characters. cut, were restored, and additional lines mentality of the Spanish Inquisition, even Many years earlier, Azucena’s mother were written for her in the Miserere. though the action of the opera is dated was burned at the stake for allegedly Verdi’s Leonora is reminiscent of prior to the establishment of the Spanish bewitching the Count’s younger brother Beethoven’s Leonore in the opera Fidelio Inquisition in the later Fifteenth century. Garzia. Charged by her mother to avenge (1805). While Beethoven’s Leonore suc- The death without an heir of King her death, Azucena abducted Garzia, but, ceeds in freeing her husband, Florestan, Martin I of Aragon on May 31, 1409 creat- in confusion, she murdered her own son from the evil Pizarro, Verdi’s Leonora is ed the conditions for civil war. Among the by mistake. Thus Manrico, whom Azuce- not successful, but she shares the same claimants to the throne were the King’s na has raised as her son, is in fact Garzia, quality of sublime love as Beethoven’s nephew Fernando de Antequera, King of Count di Luna’s brother, whose death he, character. In Act III, Scene 2, Manrico Castile, and Jaime de Aragon, Count of in turn, is pledged to avenge. says to her “Nothing but love, sublime Urgel, son of Martin’s first cousin and also The unknowing brothers Manrico love [“Amor, sublime amore”], must husband of his half-sister. Fernando was and di Luna become rivals for the love speak to your heart.” chosen King by the Aragonese parlia- of Leonora, the Queen’s lady-in-wait- Leonora’s aria, “D’amor sull’ali ment, and the Count of Urgel launched ing. But Leonora loves Manrico alone. rosee,” in Act IV, is also reminiscent of an unsuccessful rebellion to press his At the end of the play, Azucena is “Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?” sung claims to the thrown. In the opera, the captured and identified as the gypsy by Beethoven’s Leonore in Act I, Scene 5, leader of the royal forces is Count di Luna, who had abducted Garzia. She in turn in which she sings; “Come, Hope . O and Manrico, a gypsy troubadour from reveals that she is the mother of the come . I follow the inner drive, I falter the mountains of Biscay, is among the rebel leader, Manrico. not, the duty of true married love commanders of Urgel’s rebellion. Manrico learns that di Luna is about strengthens me.” In Il Trovatore, Leonora to burn Azucena alive, rushes to her sings: “On the rosy wings of love fly, my Desire for Revenge defense, and is captured. His betrothed anguished sigh, and comfort the wary In this historical context, the plot of the Leonora decides to free him, by offering mind of the unhappy prisoner. Like a opera is defined by a desire for revenge on herself to di Luna, and then committing breath of hope fly to his cell, awaken him the part of two characters, Count di Luna suicide once Manrico has escaped. But to the memories, to the dreams of love.” 94 In the Washington National Opera per- “Ah, si, ben mio”: “Ah, yes, my love, in through the sacrifice of the latter. She formance, Leonora, sung by the Bulgari- being yours, in knowing that you are too could have told Count di Luna that an soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, really mine, my soul will now be braver, my Manrico was his brother, and thus elimi- came alive with this aria. arm stronger. But if on my page of fate it nated the Count’s prime reason for seek- As Friedrich Schiller writes, the feel- be written that I must die on the enemy’s ing revenge. ing of the sublime is a combination of sword, with my last breath my thoughts The Count himself, played by the woefulness and joyfulness, which results will be of you; for me, death will only Italian baritone Roberto Servile, is a true from the decision to embrace a moral mean that I await you in heaven.” ego-driven Beast-man, consumed by principle even in the face of great mis- “jealous love,” “injured pride,” and fortune, including death. The capacity The Beast-Man “seething rage.” In Act II, Scene 2, when to make such a decision establishes that Were it not for this quality of sublime the Count plots to abduct Leonora man has within him a moral capacity love as portrayed through the develop- before she enters a convent, he sings: independent of all sensuous emotions, ment of the role of Leonora, the action “Not even a rival God would oppose my and that this moral capacity defines his of the opera would merely culminate in love. Not even a God, my lady, can take true nature as a human being. death. The civil war is not waged by you from me now!” When, in Act IV, In this opera, where the dynamic of Urgel and the forces led by Manrico on Leonora asks him to show mercy for revenge leading ineluctably to death the basis of an explicitly republican con- Manrico, he sings: “My only God is otherwise dominates the action, the sub- ception. Neither Manrico nor Leonora vengeance.” And when he contemplates lime love of Leonora for Manrico, and dies fighting for political freedom. The the execution of Manrico, like the Grand his for her, proves that man’s free will is main dynamic of the opera is triggered Inquisitor he sings: “Ah, if only I might not destroyed even in the face of death. by the superstitious belief that the old find some crueler death for the rogue! In Both Leonora and Manrico say at vari- gypsy mother of Azucena bewitched a thousand fearful agonies, make hun- ous moments that they are willing to die Garzia. Even though Azucena has told dredfold his death.” for their love. In Act I, in “Di tale amor him that he is the Count’s brother, Man- But at the end of the opera, it is the che dirsi,” Leonora sings: “Either I shall rico does not use this knowledge to Count himself who suffers the “cru- live for him, or for him I shall die!” And thwart what is otherwise inevitable. elest death” of all. As Schiller writes in in Act IV, she sings: “Rather than live as Azucena, played beautifully by the his Philosophical Letters: “Love is the another’s, I chose to die as your love!” Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Manistina, co-governing citizen of a blossoming Manrico (played by the American driven by her mother’s desire for free state, egoism a despot in a ravaged tenor, Carl Tanner), after referencing revenge and love for her adopted son, creation.” “sublime love,” sings in Act III, Scene 2, Manrico, achieves the former only —William F. Wertz, Jr. ‘Rigoletto’: Verdi’s Education of the Emotions n March 11, 1851, the composer OGiuseppe Verdi presented his new opera Rigoletto to an astonished audi- ence in Venice, Italy. This musical mas- terpiece, which the composer himself described as “revolutionary,” continues to be one of the most often performed operas in the world, and rightly so. u a e In Rigoletto, Verdi created a new con- b r a B ception of operatic construction, in which r e h p his masterful use of poetic and musical o t s i r irony succeeded in achieving what h C y Friedrich Schiller called for in his essay b s o t on “Theater as a Moral Institution”—the o h P / transformation of the audience, who r e t a e leave the theater in an elevated state of h T a mind, reflecting on the off-stage implica- r e p tions of the action presented on-stage.