Caruso famously said that the Trovatore was quite easy to cast, namely “with the four best voices in the world”. The Trovatore is perhaps the greatest feast of singers that has been composed in the history of opera. Each of the four main roles has become a showpiece for its respective vocal subject. Experience the infinite wealth of great musical themes Verdi composed for this opera.
The great aria of Leonora of the first act
We hear the first great aria (cavatina and cabaletta) of Leonora. A brief clarinet motif brings us to the nocturnal scene of the secluded garden, romantically illuminated by a shimmering full moonlight. At the beginning of the Cavatina, the singer sketches the nocturnal mood with a soft and gentle “Notte placida” (silent night) passes to a broader “ciel sereno” (clear sky) to a luminous “la luna viso argenteo” (the moon’s silvery face). A fermata on “Muto” leads to the B part, the memories of the mysterious troubadour “Dolci s’udirò” (sweet and tender sounded the strings of a lute) to be sung with great emotion. This motif is repeated again beginning in “e versi” in pianissimo and ending in a high B in “melanconici”. This A/B part is repeated again. This time she illuminates her feelings for the troubadour. This section is sung accordingly with great emotion and the cavatina ends in a grand and ecstatic cadenza that leads into high D flat.
While in the first part a contemplative, broad-flowing mood was in the foreground, in the cabaletta the form changes to a fast coloratura aria. Leonora expresses her joy with trills and a great final expansion into high C. The virtuoso piece is very demanding. This virtuosic piece is very challenging for the singer and must be sung with perfect legato to maintain elegance without the coloratura losing luster.
We hear Leontyne Price. It is the role with which Price has become a star: After a successful performance in Verona with Franco Corelli as Manrico, she was invited to the Met by the Met’s then director, Rudolf Bing. The Trovatore in the 60/61 season marked her Met debut for both Corelli and Price. This ended in an unforgettable triumphant success for Price. The final ovation of the January 1961 performance lasted 40 minutes. One of the longest in Met history. Hear it in the filmed version from 1963, an excerpt from the Metropolitan Opera.
Tacea la notte placida … Di tale amor – Price
The famous high C in the aria Di quella pira
Di quella pira is one of the great showpieces of tenors with the famous high C at the end.
This aria is a touchstone for tenors. The music is rousing: it begins in allegro and is then increased five times with effects. First the tenor has to increase the volume (at “Col sangue vostro” Verdi writes “con tutta forza”), in the middle the tempo is increased (“piu vivo” at “morir”), next the choir enters, followed by the tenor, and at the end comes the highest note. This dramaturgy triggers an ecstatic effect on the listener.
In addition to this heightening, the aria has two other characteristic features. One is the repeated sixteenth-note figures:
The tenor must sing this sixteenth-note figure in every verse, adding up to a whopping thirteen repetitions. This figure is meant to repeat the flickering of the fire (“The terrible fire of this pyre; do I feel blazing in all my fibers”). This figure is made of semitone intervals and is not easy to sing in Allegro.
The orchestra’s accompaniment has a distinctive forward momentum, and the rhythm is similar to a polonaise. It symbolizes the battle that is about to be fought, and is enhanced by the onset of the warriors’ chorus.
The second characteristic feature of the aria is the famous high C at the end. Interestingly, Verdi did not compose a high C at this point. However, one of the first tenors of this opera explicitly asked Verdi for permission. Verdi explicitly allowed it, on the condition that the C would also be sung beautifully. Interestingly, Verdi did not compose a high C at this point. However, one of the first tenors of this opera explicitly asked Verdi for permission. Verdi explicitly allowed this, on the condition that the C would also be sung beautifully. Thus, this convention has prevailed and most listeners know the aria only in this way, so that following the score would cause irritation, if not disappointment, in the audience. Even Toscanini, who banned any liberties taken by singers in the 19th century, accepted the convention.
In 2000, for the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Verdi’s death in Milan’s opera house “La Scala”, Riccardo Muti ordered to sing this aria in the original version, i.e. without the high C. After the aria there was a hail of boos and the result was a real theater scandal that moved the press and the minds for days.
Let’s start with an outstanding interpretation by Enrico Caruso. In his 1906 recording, Caruso sings the characters precisely and somewhat more slowly than other tenors. However, the aria was transposed half a tone down and it ends not on C but on B. Caruso had a baritonally colored voice. He reached high C, but also occasionally avoided it when it was not convenient. He shared this habit with other tenors. (del Monaco, Domingo, Carreras, Tucker, Gigli, Pertile…).
Note the famous Caruso sob at “madre felice”, with which he “made an expressive piece out of the martial tenor fanfare” (Kesting).
Di quella pira – Caruso
Ai nostri monti – Farewell to the world
Azucena and Manrico await their deaths in the dungeon. Almost enraptured, they recall their lives and prepare for execution.
In this achingly beautiful swan song, Verdi repeats a pattern we already know from previous duets. To Azucena’s rapturous “ai nostri monti” in a minor key, Manrico responds with a tender major passage. The following duet disappears comfortingly in a high passage.
Enjoy a nostalgic “Ai nostri monti” by Plàcido Domingo and Fiorenza Cossotto. Domingo’s velvet voice makes you comfortingly forget the pain.
Ai nostri monti – Cossotto / Domingo
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