Il Trovatore

Il Trovatore ("The Troubadour") is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)[1].

The original text

The Italian libretto was largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador (1836), , a flamboyant and incident filled melodrama by Antonio García Gutiérrez (1813-1884)[2]. The opera had its premiere at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 19 January 1853.

Translations and adaptations

The Italian libretto was translated into English as The Gipsy's Vengeance and was on occasion billed as Il Trovatore, or The Gipsy's Vengeance.

Burlesque versions of Italian, French - and, later, German - operas became popular with London audiences during the second half of the 19th century.

For example Verdi's Il Trovatore had its British premiere in 1855 in burlesque form as Ill-treated Il Trovatore (or also found as Ill Treated Il Trovatore, or The Mother, The Maiden and The Musician ) by H.J. Byron (1835-1884)[3]. The text was published by T.H. Lacy in the 1850s.

Another burlesque version of the opera (or possibly of Byron's version?) was apparently done by the Christy Minstrels (simply billed as Il Trovatore) in the 1860s, also performed during their South African visit in 1862.

In 1897 another burlesque version, called Il Trovatore Up To Date ("a burlesque in one scene"), was written and published by Alexander H. Laidlaw, Jr. in the United States.

South African performances of the Verdi opera

1863: Selections from Il Trovatore performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, "with Scenery, Chorus and Effects" by a company consisting of J.F Finlayson, Mr Bowmer, madame Bowmer and Miss Whitfield, along with a "Dialogue Entertainment in Two Parts" called Retaliation, or Tit for Tat performed by the Bowmer couple. This presentation was repeated a few days later. It was a hastily contrived programme by the company, since their key attraction, billed as "Albert Smith's splendid Panorama of China" had not arrived.

1869: Act 4 performed in the Mutual Hall, Cape Town by the Miranda-Harper Company on 26 October, with acts 2 and 3 of La Somnambula (Moncrieff) and act 4 of Maritana (Fitzball and Wallace).

1875: Performed as part of the repertoire of the Harvey-Turner Opera Company when it visited the goldfields in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The other works listed include Faust, Maritana, The Bohemian Girl, Lobgesang and Stabat Mater.

1899: Performed and taken on a tour the South African cities and towns by the visiting Arthur Rousbey Grand English Opera Company, under the management of Frank de Jong and Herbert Flemming, appearing in Cape Town's Opera House in the second half of the year.

Performances of dramatic adaptations and burlesque versions in South Africa

1862: A burlesque called Il Trovatore was performed by the Christy Minstrels, as part of their repertoire while touring the Cape Province between September and November.

1878: A "Burlesque Extravaganza" called Ill Treated Il Trovatore, or The Mother, The Maiden and The Musician (Byron) performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 18 March by Disney Roebuck and his company, as afterpiece to The Lyons Mail (Moreau, Siraudin and Delacour/Reade), along with a "dance on the High Pedestal" by the The Kickapoos Kickapoos and the one act play A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock (Brough).

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_trovatore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_burlesque

Steven Huebner (Ed). 2017. National Traditions in Nineteenth-Century Opera, Volume I: Italy, France, England and the Americas (Volume 1), Routledge.[4]

https://www.loc.gov/item/varsep.s17651/

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 139-141, 246-8, 295, 366, 385, 407.

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