IL TROVATORE Returns To The Royal Opera Next Month

Il trovatore, Verdi's opera of obsession, superstition and ancient rivalry returns to the Main Stage this February, with a summer run in July. First staged in Covent Garden in 2023, Adele Thomas's visually arresting production takes influences of early renaissance and medieval storytelling tradition to illuminate the moments of levity within the piece. 

Conductor Giacomo Sagripanti, whose previous engagements with The Royal Opera include Lucia di Lammermoor and Carmen, conducts the spring run, with Carlo Rizzi, WNO Conductor Laureate, conducting in the summer. They guide a stellar cast including Michael Fabiano as Manrico, Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Leonora, Aleksei Isaev as Count di Luna, and Agnieszka Rehlis as Azucena in the spring. In the summer, Riccardo Massi and Gwyn Hughes Jones share the role of Manrico, Elena Stikhina and Eleonora Buratto sing Leonora, Etienne Dupuis and Igor Golovatenko sing Count di Luna, and Clémentine Margaine and Yulia Matochkina sharing the role of Azucena. 

Rounding out the cast in the spring are Riccardo Fassi and Blaise Malaba, sharing the role of Ferrando, and Jette Parker Artists Valentina Puskás and Ryan Vaughan Davies as Ines and Ruiz respectively. In the summer, Roberto Tagliavini sings Ferrando, and Jette Parker Artist Veena Akama-Makia sings Ines. 

Set and costume designs by Annemarie Woods, lighting by Franck Evin, dramaturgy by Beate Breidenbach and choreography by Emma Woods shape a production that is full of ‘anarchic imagination' (Guardian), combining Hieronymus Bosch-inspired mayhem and superstition.