Luigi Perego, set and costume designer
Lorenzo Fratini, chorus master
Luigi Saccomandi, lighting designer

Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino)

Cast:
Il Conte di Luna: Leon Kim
Leonora: Carolina López Moreno
Manrico: Matteo Desole
Acuzena: Olesya Petrova
Ferrando: Giorgi Manoshvili
Ines: Olha Smokolina
Ruiz: Alfonso Zambuto

Composed in 1853, Il tovatore  is one of the works in which Verdi, with dramaturgical effectiveness, associated specific keys with particular figures or groups in order to clearly represent the differences between the characters and the social ranks they occupied. This year’s performance of the opera is by the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in collaboration with director Stefania Grazioli,  in a revival of the production originally directed by Cesare Lievi. The latter has described Il trovatore  as a nocturnal opera in which the characters move in a desolate landscape. The orchestra will be conducted by Zubin Mehta, who during his most recent visit, in 2019, received the Golden Order of Merit from then president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, in recognition of his supreme contribution to musical performance. The chorus will be directed by Lorenzo Fratini. The main roles will be sung by Leon Kim, who after completing his bachelor’s degree in his native Korea went on to pursue specialised studies in Italy, where he has won several prizes (including first prize at the Cappuccilli-Patanè-Respighi Competition); Carolina López Moreno, who has performed in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and the Berliner Philharmonie (Berlin Philharmonic); Matteo Desole, who often collaborates with the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation; and Olesya Petrova, who has worked with acclaimed conductors such as Giordano Bellincampi, Emmanuel Villaume and Valery Gergiev.

• the decision to set Antonio García Gutiérrez’s play El trovador  as an opera was influenced by the fact that Verdi’s partner, the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, was a great admirer of the work and had even translated it from Spanish to Italian
• Il trovatore  was the first opera (apart from Oberto)  that Verdi wrote without being commissioned – something he was able to do because of his enormous success
• the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual festival that takes place in Florence, Italy from April to June each year and usually includes four operatic productions
• Zubin Mehta became principal conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1985 and was later appointed honorary conductor for life
• the Muppet Show  character Zubin Beckmesser is named after him
• in 2011 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame