Tonight: Scenes from Verdi's
* II Trovatore '
Joan Hammond (soprano)
Janet Howe (mezzo-soprano)
Parry Jones (tenor)
Frederick Sharp (baritone)
BBC Theatre Chorus
BBC Theatre Orchestra
Conductor, Walter Goehr
Story told by Stephen Williams
(Frederick Sharp broadcasts by permission of the Governors of Sadler's Wells)
Everyone will tell you that the plot of // Trovatore is incomprehensible. Don't believe it. The plot is perfectly comprehensible, but, like most things worth understanding, it demands a little effort to understand. Once you have made that effort you will never forget it. The chief splendour of 11 Trovatore, however, is its prodigality of perfectly magnificent tunes. Never was Verdi more bounteous of his apparently inexhaustible wealth of melody. 11 Trovatore is one of the three highest peaks of Verdi's middle period as a composer, the other two being Rigaletto and La Traviata. It is based on Gutierrez's romantic drama of fifteenth-century Spain, El Trcvador , and tells of the love of two brothers, separated since. infancy, for the same woman. It is high tragedy of the most violently contrasted lights and shadows, and Verdi has matched it with fiery, passionate music that strikes out sparks at every bar.-Stephten Williams