Il Trovatore is not among my favorite Verdi and its story does not touch me as for example La Traviata,Rigoletto,Aida or Othello. Despite this being a 50 year old production,it is amazing .Sets and costumes do envoke this story set in Spain. Montserrat Caballe,one of the world's most famous soprano,is Leonora (she will later play Leonora in La Forza del Destino as well). She brings passion and dignity to Leonora. Ludovic Spiess as Manrico is not the most exciting of actors,but he is ardent and touching and his singing is amazing and he makes Manrico more interesting than he really is (Manrico kinda has a simmilar problem as Radames from Aida). Peter Glossop as Count Di Luna is menacing,yet he also plays him with humanity ,not something many baritones were able to do .And this brings me to Irina Arkhipova as Azucena. Azucena very often steals Il Trovatore and it happened here as well. Her acting is truly amazing and she brings out all different flavours of Azucena. Overall,this 1972 Orange production of Il Trovatore is not to miss.10/10.
