Il Trovatore, WNO

By Rian Evans [The Guardian, 27 February 2011]
This opera by Verdi was always notorious for having a complicated, if not incomprehensible, plot, but surtitles help fix that – sort of. In 15th-century Spain, a baritone and a tenor who don’t know they’re brothers are rivals both in war and love. The outcome can only be tragic, but the music is middle-period Verdi at his most flowing and this cast delivered with real conviction.