Il Trovatore
Il trovatore is one of Giuseppe Verdi's most popular operas. It's got your standard opera plot: the tenor and baritone fight over the soprano while the magical gypsy mezzo-soprano plans revenge. Being an opera, it doesn't end well. Hint: out of the main foursome, only one survives, screaming they wish they hadn't as their final line. Go figure.
Classic film buffs might recognize it from The Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera as the Brothers throw it into total chaos. The Anvil Chorus, which opens the second act, is also extremely well-known, and has been parodied at least since The Pirates of Penzance (which came out less than thirty years after the opera itself).
Tropes used in Il Trovatore include:
- Badass Baritone: Count di Luna is usually one of these, and nearly ALWAYS more attractive than the tenor.
- Burn the Witch: How it all began.
- Cain and Abel: And they don't even know they're brothers.
- Counterpoint Duet: The closing part of the big duet between the Count and Leonora - he sings about how happy he is to finally lead her to the altar and she sings about how she's going to die happily for Manrico.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Deconstructed - The Count isn't a villain, but he certainly isn't nice in his relentless pursuit of Leonora. She's in love with a troubadour? He's a soldier of the enemy? Kill him on the spot! She wants to enter a convent since she believes her lover is dead? Invade the place and get her back by force! However, he isn't the one to suggest that Leonora marry him to save Manrico - he keeps sending her away. And he seems intent on following through with their bargain until she dies before marrying him.
- Downer Ending: Bugs Bunny's dictum applies in full force here.
- Driven to Suicide: Leonora. She takes a slow-enough acting poison that she still gets to sing for quite a while.
- Green-Eyed Monster
- Idiot Ball: The main characters play hot potato with it all over the place, but Leonora is the biggest offender. She agrees to marry Luna to save Manrico, but takes the poison before securing his release and, naturally, dies before getting him free. Genius, right there.
- Irrelevant Act Opener: Act I: Ferrando's monologue (he tells the backstory but it's only interesting the first time you see it), Act II: Anvil Chorus, Act III: chorus drinking and gambling before the siege begins.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Inverted; Azucena tells Manrico that she isn't his birth mother.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Pretty much how Luna feels at the end.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: The nuns choir and, even more, the Miserere.
- Revenge Before Reason: Azucena.
- Roma: Azucena. Manrico is actually not one (by blood, at least).
- Sibling Triangle: A classic example.
- Sins of Our Fathers: It was Luna's father who began the whole thing by burning Azucena's mother.
- Scarpia Ultimatum: Inverted as it's Leonora who offers herself.
- Shallow Love Interest: Leonora, to the point where she could basically be replaced with a pet (or anything else alive that can commit the required suicide) and not much of the plot would change.
- Stalker with a Crush: Luna.
- Tenor Boy: Manrico, although he's quite badass for a tenor. High Cs help...
- Villain Song: Averted; when Luna gets an aria he sings the most lyrical love song.
- World of Ham: It's a pathetic, overly passionate story about love and hate.
- You Killed My Father: Actually, Your Father Killed My Mother.