Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El trovador (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was Gutiérrez's most successful play, one which Verdi scholar Julian Budden describes as "a high flown, sprawling melodrama flamboyantly defiant of the Aristotelian unities, packed with all manner of fantastic and bizarre incident."

The premiere took place at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on January 19, 1853, where it "began a victorious march throughout the operatic world," a success due to Verdi's work over the previous three years.

Cast:

Manrico – Giuseppe di Stefano

Leonora – Maria Callas

Azucena – Fedora Barbieri

Count di Luna – Rolando Panerai

La Scala Opera

Herbert Von Karajan – conductor

EMI - 1957