Elke Neidhardt’s classic staging of Verdi’s opera comes to Perth. The plot – involving sibling rivalry, mixed-up babies and vengeful mothers – may have more twists and turns than a gypsy’s fandango, but it boasts a back-to-back run of opera’s greatest hits, from the Anvil Chorus to the tenor’s heroic Di quella pira. Asher Fisch leads the West Australian Symphony Orchestra with Paul O’Neill as the titular troubadour Manrico, Naomi Johns as his beloved Leonora, James Clayton as his ruthless love rival Count di Luna, and Nicole Piccolomini as Azucena, his implacable mother (or is she?).

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Verdi’s masterwork Il trovatore is a tangled web of vengeance, rivalry, and regret. This is grand opera at its most dramatic.

When a gypsy woman is burnt at the stake for allegedly bewitching a child, her daughter, Azucena, swears revenge.

Azucena steals the child’s brother to throw him into the flames of her mother’s burning pyre, however, accidentally throws in her own child. Horrified by her mistake, she brings up the stolen child as her own. This haunting family secret lays the groundwork for Verdi’s tragedy.

Under the baton of West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, Asher Fisch, a star cast and chorus perform Verdi’s richly beautiful score which is most famous for the iconic Anvil Chorus.