“IL TROVATORE”

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 190, 10 May 1934, Page 11

“IL TROVATORE”

Performance Next Month 'The Royal Wellington Choral Union will open Its 1934 season next month with a performance of Verdi’s melodious and highly dramatic grand opera, “Il Trovatore.” The work, always a favourite, has not been sung by a choral society in Wellington for some years, and, as it contains some of the finest numbers Verdi ever composed, there is sure to be great interest in the presentation. The performance will be conducted by Mr. Stanley Oliver, the first guest conductor to be employed pending the appointment of a successor to Mr. John Bishop. The cast will be as follows:—Leonora, Miss Zell O’Kane; Azucena, Miss Christina Young; Manrico, Mr. Hubert Carter; Count di Luna, Mr. Russell J. Laurenson; Ferrando, Mr. Harlson Cook. The composition of “H Trovatore” by Verdi followed two years after “Rigoletto,” which was an immediate and unequivocal success. “II Trovatore” was. first performed at Rome in the Theatre Apollo on January 19, 1553, so the opera is now 81 years old. The work was a great, success from ’ its premiere, but “La Traviata,” produced a month later at Venice, was a fiasco, due, it is said, not so much to the opera as to the indifferent performances given by the principals. Time proved that this was the case, as “La Traviata” (an opera based on the Dumas play “La Dame aux Camelias”) was retained in the Italian repertoire for over half a century.