The most obvious thing about the score of Il trovatore is its melodic invention. There are more ‘quotable’ tunes from this Verdi opera than from any other. It is this melodic generosity that propels the drama of the opera. The 19th century music critic Edoard Hanslick said that the characters in Il trovatore seemed to have been shot from a pistol. It is the directness of the composer’s melodies that made Hanslick and all those who encounter the opera feel this way. Consider the opening of Act II where we go from the ‘Anvil Chorus’ of gypsies directly to Azucena’s aria “Stride la vampa”, the narrative aria “Condotta ell’era in ceppi” and then the duet between mother and son. There is a richness of melody in this scene that moves the drama along in an electrifying way and we can find examples of this kind of melodic ‘telescoping’ throughout the opera.
The thing that is perhaps not so obvious to listeners is the interesting way that Verdi establishes musical conflict between the characters in order to parallel their dramatic conflict. Although they never really meet, the greatest conflict is set between Leonora, Manrico’s lover, and Azucena, Manrico’s mother. Julian Budden, the great Verdi scholar, points out that all of Leonora’s music is of an ‘aspiring’ quality, eminently lyrical, featuring long-breathed phrases in the grand tradition of the great bel canto heroines. On the other hand, Azucena’s music is made up of ‘short, commonplace phrases based on the repetition of short rhythmic patterns.’ (The Operas of Verdi, Vol. II, p. 70, Budden) Even their tonalities conflict: Leonora’s music tends to the key of A-flat major, Azucena the keys of E minor and G major. The other distinction is that Azucena, like Carmen some twenty years later, seems always to be dancing. Many of her more memorable moments find her practically swaying to music in a triple meter but at varying tempi: “Stride la vampa” could be described as a kind of valse triste, “Condotta ell’era in ceppi” as a mordant folk dance with accented downbeat and so forth.
Now although the opera is thoroughly Italian, Verdi wasn’t immune to the fact that the story is placed in 15th century Spain and there are quasi Spanish elements evident in the score. Most obvious is the guitar-like texture and flamenco flavor of the driving rhythm beneath Manrico’s great cabaletta “Di quella pira”. One cannot ignore the exotic turn of phrase over the word ‘terra’ in Manrico’s off-stage troubadour tune in Act I, “Deserto sulla terra”, giving his first utterance in the opera a Moorish tinge. There are also typical ‘gypsy’ touches here and there, like the triangles, cymbals and drums that accompany the Anvil Chorus.
Overall, however, the most striking thing about Il trovatore when comparing it to Verdi’s other middle-period operas, is its tinta: it has an overall darkness that isn’t matched by any other opera until Don Carlo, another Spanish tragedy. Verdi emphasizes the darkness in the story by tipping the orchestral balance to instruments in the lower range or instruments playing in their lower range, and a preponderance of numbers in a minor key. Even the lighter moments (i.e., numbers in a major key) have a weight to them that point to the inexorable tragedy of the drama.