Just under the surface, every family has its unresolved problems and mysteries. Verdi’s Il trovatore embraces this complexity ––a Romani curse, disappeared children, mislaid identities, deadly fires, unfathomable loss. But something elemental emerges from the shadows and the embers, rekindled by Verdi’s thrumming, thrilling score––an extended family coming to terms with its secret history. In a politically divided Spain, the royalist Count di Luna and the revolutionary leader Manrico love the same woman, Leonora. As the men face off, they become ensnared in a larger web of lies, murder, and revenge, spun in part by the fascinating Romani woman Manrico knows as his mother: Azucena, whose own mother’s death set the story in motion many years earlier. Azucena holds all the cards and plays them, with eerie certainty, right up to the last moment.

HGO presents a new production of Verdi’s perennially popular tragedy, freshly envisioned by influential director Stephen Wadsworth for a stunning, old-meets-new-world experience. Superstar soprano Ailyn Pérez, fresh from her triumph as Madame Butterfly, performs the role of Leonora opposite virtuoso baritenor Michael Spyres as Manrico, with baritone Lucas Meachem as Count di Luna and mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as Azucena. Maestro Patrick Summers conducts.