"Il trovatore" (The Troubadour) opera in four acts by
Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi that premiered at the
Teatro Apollo in Rome on January 19, 1853. Verdi
prepared a revised version in French, Le Trouvère,
with added ballet music, which premiered at the Paris
Opéra on January 12, 1857. Based on the 1836 play El
trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez, the opera is
one of three considered to represent the culmination of
Verdi’s artistry to that point. (The other two are
Rigoletto and La trav...(+)
"Il trovatore" (The Troubadour) opera in four acts by
Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi that premiered at the
Teatro Apollo in Rome on January 19, 1853. Verdi
prepared a revised version in French, Le Trouvère,
with added ballet music, which premiered at the Paris
Opéra on January 12, 1857. Based on the 1836 play El
trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez, the opera is
one of three considered to represent the culmination of
Verdi’s artistry to that point. (The other two are
Rigoletto and La traviata.)
Verdi was impressed with García Gutiérrez’s
melodramatic play and engaged Cammarano (Verdi’s
collaborator on three previous operas) to write a
libretto based on it, although no theatre had
commissioned the work. The librettist was reluctant,
and Verdi’s correspondence with him reveals a
struggle between them as Verdi sought a new way to
present the drama on its own terms, without the
constraints of operatic convention. He practically
begged Cammarano to release him from the strictures of
“cavatinas, duets, trios, choruses, finales, etc.,
etc.,” and to make “the entire opera…a single
piece.”
The opera was a triumph from the first night. Themes of
obsession, revenge, war, and family are conveyed
through characters who present dramatic contrasts. The
central character—and the one who seems to have
attracted Verdi’s interest most strongly—is the
gypsy Azucena. (He had considered naming the opera for
her.) The composer, who by this time had mastered the
Romantic and bel canto traditions, took so many aspects
of the opera (including fiery characters, extreme
dramatic situations, and virtuosic demands on singers)
to the very limits of current possibilities that later
critics ridiculed the characters and plot as being well
beyond plausible. Yet the music was transcendent, and
the opera continues to be widely performed. Act II
features the “"Anvil Chorus"” (or “"Gypsy
Chorus"”), which has become one of the best-known
passages in the operatic repertoire.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anvil_Chorus).
Although originally created for Orchestra, I created
this Arrangement of the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore
(IGV 31 Act 2 Scene 1) for Winds (Piccolo, Flute, Oboe,
Bb Clarinet, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2
Violins, Viola, Cello & Bass).
PARTITION