Editing Il trovatore (section)

==Music==
[[File:Disegno per copertina di libretto, disegno di Peter Hoffer per Il trovatore (1956) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON012431.jpg|thumb|Drawing for ''Il trovatore'' (1956)]]
Today, most opera scholars recognize the expressive musical qualities of Verdi's writing. However, [[musicologist]] [[Roger Parker]] notes that "the extreme formalism of the musical language has been seen as serving to concentrate and define the various stages of the drama, above all channeling them into those key confrontations that mark its inexorable progress".<ref name="PARK">{{harvnb|Parker|1998|p=827}}</ref>

Here he, like many other writers, notes the elements of musical form (then often described as "closed forms") which characterize the opera and make it appear to be something of a return to the language of earlier times, "the veritable apotheosis of ''bel canto'' with its demands for vocal beauty, agility and range," notes [[Charles Osborne (music writer)|Charles Osborne]].<ref name="OSB255">{{harvnb|Osborne|1977|p=255}}</ref> Thus, the [[cantabile]]-[[cabaletta]] two-part arias, the use of the chorus, etc., which Verdi had originally asked Cammarano to ignore, are evident. But Verdi wanted something else: "the freer the forms he presents me with, the better I shall do," he wrote to the librettist's friend in March 1851.<ref>Verdi to De Sanctis, 29 April 1851{{full citation needed|date=June 2023|reason=Presumably in Budden 1984, but which page?}}</ref> It was not what he received from his librettist, but he certainly demonstrated his total mastery over this style. Osborne's take on '''Il trovatore'' is that "it is as though Verdi had decided to do something which he had been perfecting over the years, and to do it so beautifully that he need never to do it again. Formally, it is a step backward after ''Rigoletto''".<ref name="OSB255" />

Budden describes one of the musical qualities as the relationship between the "consistent dramatic impetus" of the action being caused by the "propulsive quality" of the music which produces a "sense of continuous forward motion".<ref name="BUDD67">{{harvnb|Budden|1984|pp=67–70}}</ref> Parker describes it as "sheer musical energy apparent in all the numbers".<ref name="PARK" /> And Budden gives many examples which show Verdi as "the equal of Bellini" as a melodist.<ref name="BUDD67" />

Verdi also clearly recognizes the importance of the role of Azucena. Remembering that the composer's initial suggestion to Cammarano was that he wanted to name the opera after her, Budden notes that this character "is the first of a glorious line"<ref name="BUDD67"/> and he names Ulrica (from ''Ballo''), Eboli (from ''Don Carlos''), and Amneris (from ''Aida'') as followers in the same vocal range and with the same expressive and distinct qualities which separate them from the other female role in the opera in which they feature. He quotes from a letter which Verdi wrote to [[Marianna Barbieri-Nini]], the soprano who was due to sing the Leonora in Venice after the premiere, and who expressed reservations about her music. Here, Verdi emphasizes the importance of the role of Azucena:
:..it's a principal, ''the'' principal role; finer and more dramatic and more original than the other. If I were a prima donna (a fine thing that would be!), I would always rather sing the part of the Gypsy in ''Il trovatore''.<ref name="VtoS" />

From this position, Budden comments on the distinct differences in an era where vocal registers were less defined and which extend into Leonora's and Azucena's music "where greater verbal projection of the lower voice [can be] turned to advantage" and where "the polarity between the two female roles [extends] into every field of comparison."<ref name="BUDD67" /> He then sums up the musical relationship which exists between the two female characters, the men having simply been defined as being representative of their own voice types, something evident and very striking in Verdi's significant use of voice types in ''[[Ernani]]'' of 1844. Regarding Leonora, Budden describes her music as "mov[ing] in long phrases most characterized by a soaring 'aspiring' quality" whereas "Azucena's melodies evolve in short, often commonplace phrases based on the repetition of short rhythmic patterns".<ref name="BUDD67" />