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Il Trovatore turns 150
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Since its premiere at the Teatro Apollo in Rome, 150 years ago, Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore has remained one of the most performed and loved operas in music. But with its hard to believe plot of gypsies, obsessive love and babies thrown into fires, and to that an incredibly difficult vocal score, the opera has fallen out of style. Our guest tonight, William Berger wants you to once again see the masterpiece in Il Trovatore, although he calls it "Rodney Dangerfield of Operas — immensely popular but it gets no respect", he also says that we should stop apologizing for Il Trovatore and start apologizing to it, that after 150 years it's still modern, still urgent and still one of the musically best scores in opera history. Tonight, re-finding the genius in Il Trovatore.
Guests:
William Berger, writer, lecturer and author of many books on Opera including "Verdi With a Vengeance: An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera"
This program aired on January 24, 2003.