Tutto Verdi - The Complete Operas Boxset Disc 17 : Il Trovatore (2012) [Full Blu-ray]

On the occasion of the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Verdi, the Teatro Regio di Parma and Unitel ClassiCa have joined forces to realize a truly unique project. Up to the Verdi anniversary year 2013, all of the composer’s 26 operas, as well as the Requiem – which is closely related to the operas – will be performed and audiovisually recorded in and around Parma. For the first time ever, and on time for the composer’s anniversary, Verdi’s operatic oeuvre, which comprises the labor of more than 50 years, will be available in high definition and surround sound.
Il trovatore (The Troubadour) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El trovador (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was Gutiérrez's most successful play, one which Verdi scholar Julian Budden describes as "a high flown, sprawling melodrama flamboyantly defiant of the Aristotilian unities, packed with all manner of fantastic and bizarre incident."
The premiere took place at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 19 January 1853, where it "began a victorious march throughout the operatic world", a success due to Verdi's work over the previous three years. It began with his January 1850 approach to Cammarano with the idea of Il trovatore. There followed, slowly and with interruptions, the preparation of the libretto, first by Cammarano until his death in mid-1852 and then with the young librettist Leone Emanuele Bardare, which gave the composer the opportunity to propose significant revisions, which were accomplished under his direction. These revisions are seen largely in the expansion of the role of Leonora.For Verdi, the three years were filled with operatic activity because work on this opera did not proceed while the composer wrote and premiered Rigoletto in Venice in March 1851 and also while his personal affairs limited his activities. Then, in May 1851, an additional commission was offered by the Venice company after Rigoletto's success there. Then another came from Paris while he was visiting that city from late 1851 and into March 1852. Therefore, even before the libretto for Il trovatore was ever completed, before the music was written, and before the opera premiered, Verdi had a total of four different operatic projects underway and in various stages of development.

Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi

Performer: Cristina Giannelli (Soprano), Roberto Jachini Virgili (Tenor), Mzia Nioradze (Mezzo Soprano),
Teresa Romano (Mezzo Soprano), Marcelo Alvarez (Tenor), Claudio Sgura (Baritone)
Conductor: Yuri Temirkanov
Orchestra/Ensemble: Parma Teatro Regio Orchestra, Parma Teatro Regio Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1853; Italy



Production: C Major
Runtime: 2:20:15
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: AVC
Audio codec: DTS,LPCM
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 29948 kbps / 1080i / 29.970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio#1: Italian LPCM 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio#2: Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 48 kHz / 4007 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese