Trivia / Il trovatore

• All-Star Cast: As Manrico, Leonora, Azucena, Di Luna, and Ferrando...
  • Audio Recordings:
    • 1952, conducted by Renato Cellini: Jussi Björling, Zinka Milanov, Fedora Barbieri, Leonard Warren, Nicola Moscona.
    • 1956, conducted by Herbert von Karajan: Giuseppe Di Stefano, Maria Callas, Fedora Barbieri, Rolando Panerai, Nicola Zaccaria.
    • 1962, conducted by Herbert von Karajan (live at the Salzburg Festival): Franco Corelli, Leontyne Price, Giulietta Simionato, Ettore Bastianini, Nicola Zaccaria.
    • 1963, conducted by Tulio Serafin: Carlo Bergonzi, Antonietta Stella, Fiorenza Cossotto, Ettore Bastianini, Ivo Vinco.
    • 1969, conducted by Zubin Mehta: Plácido Domingo, Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, Sherrill Milnes, Bonaldo Giaiotti.
    • 1976, conducted by Richard Bonynge: Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Ingvar Wixell, Nicolai Ghiaurov.
    • 1978, conducted by Herbert von Karajan (live at the Vienna State Opera): Plácido Domingo, Raina Kabaivanska, Fiorenza Cossotto, Piero Cappuccilli, José van Dam.
    • 1980, conducted by Sir Colin Davis: José Carreras, Katia Ricciarelli, Stefania Toczyska, Yuri Mazurok, Robert Lloyd.
    • 1991, conducted by James Levine: Plácido Domingo, Aprile Millo, Dolora Zajick, Vladimir Chernov, James Morris.
  • Video Recordings:
    • 1957, conducted by Fernando Previtali: Mario Del Monaco, Leyla Gencer, Fedora Barbieri, Ettore Bastianini, Plinio Clabassi.
    • 1988, conducted by James Levine at the Met Opera: Luciano Pavarotti, Éva Marton, Dolora Zajick, Sherrill Milnes, Jeffrey Wells.
    • 2002, conducted by Carlo Rizzi at the Royal Opera House: José Cura, Verónica Villarroel, Yvonne Naef, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Tomas Tomasson.
    • 2011, conducted by Marco Armiliato at the Met Opera: Marcelo Álvarez, Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Stefan Kocán.
    • 2015, conducted by Marco Armiliato at the Met Opera (again): Yonghoon Lee, Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Stefan Kocán.
    • 2019, conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi at the Arena di Verona Festival: Yusif Eyvazov, Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Luca Salsi, Riccardo Fassi.
• Star-Making Role: Leonora was the breakout role of Leontyne Price.
• Throw It In!: The traditional high Cs in Di quella pira" are not actually in Verdi's score.
• Manrico is a dramatic tenor, and the "high Cs" are frequently transposed down a semitone because while the singer has all the raw power necessary for the role, he doesn't have a reliable high C. (Franco Corelli emphatically did.)