Verdi: Il Trovatore

When Covent Garden announced for its 1964 season the reuniting of director Luchino Visconti and conductor Carlo Maria Giulini considerable excitement was engendered. Harold Rosenthal wrote in Opera Magazine after one of the performances of Il Trovatore that “this was one of the GREATEST SINGLE PERFORMANCES of Italian opera we have heard at Covent Garden in recent years, not least because of the genius of Giulini in the pit. Giulini, with his burning sincerity, musical integrity, complete belief in Verdi's music, and his wonderful rhythmic sense is without doubt the greatest conductor of Italian opera, and Verdi in particular, since Toscanini.”

The highly distinguished Welsh soprano Gwyneth Jones (born 1936), who replaced Leontyne Price at short notice, made her international breakthrough in this 1964 performance by giving a wonderful account of Leonora's music. She was here at the absolutely peak of her achievement. After these performances in 1964 her career developed rapidly. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1976 and was promoted to Dame 1986. Jones never recorded Leonora.

Bruno Prevedi (1928-88) as Manrico was not at the time considered a particularly outstanding tenor; here proves his detractors wrong. Throughout he has just the right combination of the lyrical and heroic to fulfil the taxing role's needs, without any of the coarseness of his successors.

Prevedi belonged to a group that included James King, Mario del Monaco, James McCracken, Gino Penno and Franco Corelli and was only overtaken by the arrival of new types of tenor like Pavarotti and Domingo. Yet, Prevedi was a much different artist with a far larger voice than the more famous ones to follow him.

The great Italian mezzo-soprano, Giulietta Simionato (born 1910) gives her classic portrayal of Azucena, the gypsy mother of Manrico. Simionato was very much in the veteran stage of her career by 1964 and probably had sung innumerable performances of this part, giving her performance great authority.

As for the sound, this is as good as any we have had so far in this Covent Garden series. It is particularly helpful in bringing out the fine instrumental balance achieved by Giulini.