Dutch National Opera presents
TENSION, LOVE AND DECEPTION
IL TROVATORE
Giuseppe Verdi
Dramma lirico in quattro parti
Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano and Leone Bardare, after the play El Trovador by S.G. Gutiérrez
World premiere 19 January 1853, Teatro Apollo, Rome
THIS PRODUCTION
New production
Co-production with Opéra national de Paris and Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Premiere 8 October 2015
Along with Rigoletto and La traviata, Il trovatore is one of Verdi’s most popular operas. The piece is full of tension, love, bloody revenge, deception and death. In the hands of the renowned directors’ collective La Fura dels Baus, this is bound to be an exciting production.
In short
Two men fight over one woman (Leonora), with a fatal outcome, but actually the main protagonist is the mysterious gypsy Azucena. She is out for bloody revenge. In famous arias, the drama Il trovatore tells of the battle between two rivals who fight over the same woman. One is the Spanish Count of Aragon and the other is a troubadour who was brought up by the gypsies.

Àlex Ollé
stage directorÀLEX OLLÉ (stage director) is one of the six artistic directors of the renowned directors’ collective La Fura dels Baus, founded in 1979.

Maurizio Benini
Musical directorMAURIZIO BENINI (musical director) has been principal conductor with Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Wexford Festival Opera and Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile and a regular guest conductor with Teatro di San Carlo in Napels.
Team, Cast and Chorus
- Conductor
- Maurizio Benini
- Stage Director
- Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus)
- Associate Stage Director
- Valentina Carrasco
- Set Designer
- Alfons Flores
- Costume Designer
- Lluc Castells
- Lighting Designer
- Urs Schönebaum
- Orchestra
- Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
- Chorus
- Dutch National Opera Chorus
- Chorus Master
- Ching-Lien Wu
- Il Conte di Luna
- Simone Piazzola
- Leonora
- Carmen Giannattasio
- Azucena
- Violeta Urmana
- Manrico
- Francesco Meli
- Ferrando
- Roberto Tagliavini
- Ines
- Florieke Beelen
- Ruiz
- Antonio Lozano
- Un vecchio zingaro
- Peter Arink
- Un messo
- Richard Prada
Creation
In 2014, Àlex Ollé of La Fura dels Baus, directed a powerful, highly acclaimed Faust with Dutch National Opera. The Volkskrant wrote: ‘It was a masterly stroke to entrust this opera to Àlex Ollé.’ Besides the dramatic love story, this version of Il trovatore also puts strong emphasis on the political background.
Energy and finesse
The leading music magazine Gramophone commended the Italian conductor Maurizio Benini for his energy and attention to finesse. He is making his debut with Dutch National Opera, conducting the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
Main roles
There are two important DNO debuts in the four main roles of Il trovatore: Simone Piazzola (Il conte) and Francesco Meli, who has previously sung the role of Manrico with great success at the Salzburger Festspiele. Carmen Giannattasio (Leonora) has sung Madama Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims with DNO.
Music
Dutch National Opera’s regular orchestra partner is regarded internationally as one of the best opera orchestras. The orchestra gives a varied programme of concerts in the Concertgebouw, as well as performing in various Dutch concert halls and at venues and festivals abroad.
Strangely, this is the first time Dutch National Opera has staged Il trovatore since 1980. Artistic director Pierre Audi even cancelled a planned production when he first started in his position within the company 27 years ago because he felt the soloists were not right. Tonight's four soloists made it worth the long wait.