Scottish Opera

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

When the infant son of Count di Luna falls ill after a visit from a gypsy woman, she is burned at the stake for witchcraft. Her daughter snatches the Count’s child intending to kill him, but, mad with grief, throws her own son onto the fire. Years later, she has brought the Count’s son up as her own and he and his elder brother, unaware of their relationship, are rivals for the beautiful Leonora.  Jealousy, revenge, love and hate collide as the opera crashes towards its unstoppable conclusion.

This restaging from director Martin Lloyd-Evans conjures up all the superstition and fearfulness of the Dark Ages. The stark, brooding lines of the set stand in contrast to the blood and thunder of Verdi’s music, providing a majestic backdrop for a cast and chorus of over 50.

Full-blooded opera at its grandest, Verdi’s score is pack with a dizzying succession of familiar melodies, from the thrilling Anvil Chorus and Manrico’s stirring ‘Di quella pira’ to the spinetingling Miserere. The cast features some of the UK’s finest singers, including Roland Wood, Anne Mason and Matthew Best, leading soprano Claire Rutter and renowned Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones.