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- Historical persons (HP) behind the opera characters
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Il trovatore
- Drama in 4 parts, Italian
- Libretto Salvadore Cammarano and Leone Emanuele Bardare. Cammarano died in July 1852, and Verdi engaged Bardare to re-structure the existing libretto.
- Based on the play El trovador by Antonio-García Gutiérrez
- Time: Fifteenth century. Place: Biscay and Aragon (Spain).
- Premiere Teatro Apollo, Rome, 19 January 1853
Act 2, Scene 5. Manrico comes to Leonora's rescue in the convent scene from a Covent Garden London production of 1887, by Litz Collection. From left to right: Leonora, Manrico, Count di Luna, Ferrando.
Manrico 'Di quella pira'. act 3, scene 2. A still from Visconti's film Senso. Teatro Fenice, Venice.
- Characters:
- Count di Luna, a nobleman in the service of the Prince of Aragon, baritone
- Giovanni Guicciardi sang in the first premiere 19 Jan 1853
- Gaetano Ferri
- dr.iur. Albert Ognjan Štriga pl.Čunovečki
- Francesco Graziani created for Théâtre-Italien Paris the role of Count di Luna
- Antonio Cotogni ao. in Madrid
- Sir Charles Santley
- Eugène Caron his stage debut in 1862 at the Paris Opera
- Paul Lhérie
- Niels Juel Simonsen
- Victor Maurel
- Giuseppe Kaschmann
- Antonio Magini Coletti
- Giuseppe Campanari His Metropolitan debut on 30 Nov 1894 with Tamagno as Manrico.
- Mattia Battistini
- Francisco d'Andrade
- David Scull Bispham
- Jean Noté
- Mario Ancona
- Giuseppe Pacini
- Maurizio Azulay Bensaude
- Ferruccio Francesco Corradetti /// "Ah no! non fia d'altri Leonora! Il balen del suo sorriso..."
- Richard Breitenfeld made his opera debut as Luna in 1897 in Cologne.
- Giuseppe De Luca
- Titta Ruffo
- Pasquale Amato
- Amleto Barbieri
- Carlo Galeffi
- Mate Jakov Čulić Dragun
- Mario Carmelo Basiola
- Leonard Warren
- Gino Bechi
- Tito Gobbi
- Paolo Silveri
- Robert Merrill
- Ettore Bastianini
- Rolando Panerai
- Piero Cappuccilli
- Usko Viitanen
- Ingvar Wixell with Sutherland and Bonynge
- Kari Nurmela
- Renato Bruson
- Jorma Hynninen
- Leo Nucci
- Manrico, a troubadour and officer in the army of the Prince of Urgel, tenor
- Carlo Baucardé sang in the first premiere
- Giovanni Matteo (Mario) De Candia
- Gennaro Ricci
- Raffaele Angelo Agostino Mirate
- Gaetano Fraschini was praised by Verdi as a natural Manrico
- Louis Guéymard
- Emilio Clodovaldo Naudin
- Antonio Giuglini
- Pietro Mongini
- Gustav Walter
- Jean Morère .
- Antonio Aramburo
- Italo Campanini
- Lodovico Giraud
- Leopoldo Signoretti
- Francesco Innocenzo Tamagno
- Agustarello / Gustarello Affre
- Francesco Signorini
- Selmar Cerini
- Angelo Angioletti
- Francesco Daddi
- Raoul Walter, Dr.
- Gino Martinez-Patti
- Luigi Colazza
- Giovanni Peirani
- Erik Schmedes
- Ferruccio Giannini
- Antonio Paoli
- Enrico Caruso
- Leo Slezak
- Giovanni Zenatello
- Noe Vitomir Matošić
- Alfred Piccaver
- Giovanni Martinelli
- Kipras Petrauskas
- Rudolf Laubenthal
- Arnoldo Lindi
- Beniamino Samuele Benedetto Gigli
- Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
- Jussi Björling
- Richard Tucker
- Mario Del Monaco
- Mario Lanza
- Franco Corelli
- Giuseppe di Stefano
- Carlo Bergonzi
- Fritz Wunderlich
- Carlo Cossutta
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Plácido Domingo
- Roberto Alagna
- Azucena, a gypsy, supposedly Manrico's mother, mezzo-soprano
- Emilia Goggi sang in the first premiere 19 Jan 1853
- Elena D'Angri
- Pauline Viardot
- Gaetanina Brambilla Marulli
- Marietta Alboni
- Adelaide Borghi-Mamo sang in the first premiere of the revised French version of "Le trouvère" 12 Jan 1857
- Charlotte Helene Frederikke Bournonville
- Karoline von Gomperz
- Marthe Louise Ernestine Duvivier
- Andréa Philippine Madelaine Barbot
- Teresa Ferni
- Vincenzina Ferni
- Medea Maria Figner
- Amalia Paoli Marcano
- Ernestine Schumann-Heink
- Leonilda Paini Gabbi
- Maria Verger
- Cvijeta pl. de Cindro
- Irma Tervani
- Maartje Offers
- Antonietta Toini
- Ebe Stignani
- Aino Sylvia Elenius-Urbano
- Blanche Thebom
- Ksenija Cindro
- Fedora Barbieri
- Giulietta Simionato
- Shirley Mae Verrett
- Fiorenza Cossotto
- Leonora, noble lady, in love with Manrico and courted by Di Luna, soprano
- Rosina Penco sang in the first premiere 19 Jan 1853
- Fanny Salvini-Donatelli Debut as Leonora in 1858 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
- Marianna Barbieri-Nini
- Marie Carandini In Nov 1858 she sang Leonora in a season of twenty-seven performances at the Princess Theatre Melbourne.
- Caroline Barbot
- Angiolina Bosio
- Thérèse Tietjens
- Teresa Stolz
- Ilma de Murska
- Marietta Piccolomini
- Pauline Guéymard-Lauters Her Paris Opera debut on 12 Jan 1857 in the premiere of the revised French version of "Le Trouvère"
- Albina Contarini
- Adelina Patti
- Emma Howson
- Romilda Pantaleoni
- Erminia Borghi-Mamo
- Ada Adini
- Adalgisa Gabbi
- Lillian Nordica
- Hariclea Darclée
- Isabella Paoli
- Selma Kronold
- Leonilda Paini Gabbi
- Emma Eames
- Ida Sambo
- Elda Cavalieri
- Fausta Labia
- Solomiya Amvrosiivna Krushelnytska
- Emmy Destinn
- Maria Labia
- Fernanda Chiesa
- Elvira Barbieri
- Cecilia Gagliardi
- Geraldine Farrar
- Eugenia Burzio
- Hanna Granfelt
- Valentina Bartolomasi
- Claudia Muzio
- Giannina Arangi-Lombardi
- Viorica Tango Vasilescu
- Rosa Ponselle
- Gina Cigna
- Maria Caniglia
- Zinka Milanov
- Lina Bruna Rasa
- Renata Tebaldi
- Maria Callas
- Maaria Eira
- Galina Vishnevskaya
- Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM AC DBE
- Leontyne Price
- Anna Moffo
- Renata Scotto
- Montserrat Caballé
- Júlia Várady
- Cynthia Hansell-Bakic
- Aprile Millo
- Angela Gheorghiu
- Ferrando, bass
- Ines, Leonora's confidante, soprano
- Ruiz, Manrico's henchman, tenor
- Count di Luna, a nobleman in the service of the Prince of Aragon, baritone
- Conductors:
- Emilio Angelini conducted in the first premiere 19 Jan 1853
- Eugenio Cavallini
- Egisto Emilio Tango
- Tullio Serafin
- Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet
- Gabriele Santini
- Fausto Cleva
- Fernando Previtali
- Herbert von Karajan
- Gianandrea Gavazzeni
- Carlo Maria Giulini
- Zubin Mehta
- Riccardo Muti
- Riccardo Chailly, OMRI
- Stage directors:
- Giuseppe Cencetti (in the World Premiere at Teatro Apollo, Rome, 19 January 1853)
- Dr. Sandor Hevesi , née Alexander Hoffmann Unforgettable Verdi performances 1910-1930 with conductor Egisto Emilio Tango
- Luchino Visconti (La Scala Milan 1955-58?; Bolshoi Theater Moscow 1964 with Cavazzeni; ROH Covent Garden London 1964 with Giulini)
- Herbert von Karajan
- Giuseppe Patroni Griffi (opera & film, Arena di Verona 1985 with Reynald Giovaninetti)
- Giorgio De Lullo (La Scala 1962 with Gavazzeni)
- Luca Roncóni (Teatro Comunale di Firenze 18 Dec 1977; Bayerische Staatsoper Munich 2 Feb 1992)
- Giancarlo Del Monaco (Karlsruhe; Leipzig; Orange Festival)
Le trouvère / revised version
- Libretto Salvadore Cammarano, Leone Emanuele Bardare; Émilien Pacini (trans.).
- 4 acts, French.
- Premiere at the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie, Brussels, 20 May 1856
- Revised version of Il trovatore, although written for the Paris Opéra with a ballet added, was given in Brussels, then performed at the Salle Le Peletier on 12 January 1857.
- Conductors: