Il Trovatore

by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Salvatore Cammarano & Leone Emanuele Bardare after El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez (1836)

Opera Australia
Originally commissioned by State Opera of SA, Western Australian Opera, Opera Queensland

Arts Centre, Melbourne, April –May 2007
Sydney Opera House, July – August 2007

DIRECTOR: ELKE NEIDHARDT
ASSISTANT DIRECTORS: MATTHEW BARCLAY, SALLY BLACKWOOD, CAMERON MENZIES (Melbourne)
Conductor: GIOVANNI REGGIOLI
Set Designer: MICHAEL SCOTT-MITCHELL
Costume Designer: JUDITH HODDINOTT
Lighting Designer: NICK SCHLIEPER

“Elke Neidhardt chose to set her 2007 production for Opera Australia during the more recent Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, a decision that Verdi would probably have applauded. It certainly makes sense of a great deal of the partisan to-ings and fro-ings that frequently impinges on the romantic love triangle at the heart of this drama. And in a world still riven with conflict and civil unrest, Neidhardt’s staging achieves a resonance that feels as depressingly fresh as today’s news footage. The sense of the street fighting and of neighbour against neighbour is vividly conveyed. The Anvil Chorus depicts a harrowing series of revenge killings.” Limelight