Il Trovatore

Tags

Top Highlights

• Count di Luna, is obsessed with Leonora, a young noblewoman in the queen’s service, who does not return his love.

• the jealous count is determined to capture and punish him.

• bewitching the count’s infant brother.

• The gypsy’s daughter then took revenge by kidnapping the boy and throwing him into the flames where her mother had died.

• The charred skeleton of a baby was discovered there, and di Luna’s father died of grief soon after.

• di Luna has sworn to find her.

• During the duel, Manrico overpowered the count, but some instinct stopped him from killing his rival.

• Azucena is the woman for whom di Luna has been searching.

• Her life is scarred by the memory of her mother’s death and the terrible revenge she exacted.

• Azucena tells him how she stole the older count’s infant son but, in her manic rage, accidentally murdered her own child instead.

• When Manrico demands to know who he truly is, Azucena is evasive:

• All that matters is the mother’s love she has shown him all his life

• and that he does not fail to take revenge on the house of di Luna.

• Azucena cries out to Manrico to rescue her,

• Leonora offers herself to the count in return for her lover’s life;

• however, she secretly takes a slow-acting poison, sealing her fate.

• In their cell, Manrico tries to comfort Azucena, who is terrified of the stake and the fire that await her.

• But the poison is already taking effect, and Leonora dies in his arms, just as di Luna arrives.

• He sends Manrico to his execution.

• Azucena cries out that her mother is avenged: di Luna has killed his own brother.