Performers
Manrico: Salvatore Licitra
Leonora: Barbara Frittoli
Azucena: Violetta Urmana
di Luna: Leo Nucci

Staging: Hugo de Ana
La Scala Orchestra
Riccardo Muti (conductor)

Riccardo Muti conducts a spectaular production of Il trovatore from the opening night of the Milan opera season, from La Scala in Dec 2000.

As ever in Italy, where opera inflames passions from the top to the bottom of society, there was controversy. Much of this centred around Muti's use of a 'non-traditional' version in which the tenor did not sing the flashy top notes in Act III's show-stopper Di quella pira, added by Verdi after the first performances.

There was heckling and shouting from the loggia boxes, but Muti knew what he was doing: his aim is to restore the composer to his original intentions, to bring out Verdi the dramatist rather than the Verdi that plays to the gallery. He draws a rich and sculpted sound from the orchestra, who respond in a typically vibrant Italian way to his high-octane demands.

Surprisingly, for an opera with such as familiar arias as the Anvil Chorus (and the theme tune to Harry Enfield's TV series!) it was the first production at La Scala for 22 years.

The soloists are all in top form: Salvatore Licitra is dark-toned and powerful as Manrico, while Barbara Frittoli follows in the lyrical tradition of Leonoras. The staging is traditional, lavish, and appropriately dark for this, one of Verdi's greatest works.