It was Enrico Caruso who reputedly stated that all you need to stage Verdi’s Il Trovatore are the four greatest singers in the world. It’s quite a well-known claim, from a singer who performed Manrico fewer than 15 times on stage and it’s repeated in the programme to WNO’s production of the opera currently on tour, which I saw last night in Southampton. Despite the fact that this statement overlooks the important bass role of Ferrando, so important for kicking the whole thing off with some drama and energy, Trovatore is often considered a really difficult opera to cast.

Last night was probably one of the more successful attempts I’ve seen, although I’d qualify that by revealing that the other three stagings I’ve witnessed are the disappointing Elijah Moshinsky one at the ROH, which replaced an even poorer one by Piero Faggioni which I saw back in 1990, and the Payne/Daniel ENO effort of 2001 – not great productions and, apart from Hvorostovksy’s di Luna at the ROH, less than wonderful casting. The singing last night, particularly of the roles of di Luna (Dario Solari) and Leonora (Katia Pellegrino) was remarkably good and it led me to wondering –

If you could cast a performance/ recording of the opera and could choose from any of the singers past and present who you’ve heard (live or on disc), what would your star cast be?

An intriguing selection, ernani, including some real luxury casting of Ines and Ruiz! I haven't heard Abbado conduct Trovatore, but given his La Scala credentials and such wonders as Boccanegra and Macbeth, I'd imagine it would have plenty of Italian fire, which I think this opera needs.

I'm familiar with Leontyne Price through the RCA studio recording and the DG live one from Salzburg. I think her voice has a suitable aristocratic ring for the role of Leonora. Why Bjoerling? I haven't heard much of the others - he doesn't feature in my Verdi collection at all. Lisitsian's was a superb voice from what little I've heard - there is a clip of him singing Il balen in Russian online and he's a singer I've been meaning to try and investigate on disc. Margarete Klose is a new name to me.

If the four (or five) greatest singers are unavailable, three of the world's greatest comedians can also enhance the experience. 

Thanks, Swan_Knight, for another interesting list, and to ernani for more thoughts. I think I'm going to have to try and sample Bjoerling's Manrico - I see that the Cellini set is now available on Naxos' Historical label. I have Tozzi's Ferrando on the Decca Erede recording and his is an authoritative account of the narration in the first scene. Price, Milnes and Cossotto are all strong contenders for my selection, I think.

The RCA with Price, Domingo, Cossotto and Milnes under Metha is a pretty safe bet

Thanks, ernani! I'm not really too interested in safe -- it needn't be a stereo-era recording. And I do have a slight antipathy to Mehta. But the singers look like good ones, and it seems to be well regarded. A recording that comes with libretto would be handy.

IGI, I'd also noticed and been tempted by the Serafin recording: presumably it comes with just a synopsis? 

Thanks to you both!

I went for the Serafin: at a little over a fiver (incl. postage) from a UK-based Amazon marketplace seller it seemed too good to miss! 

Thanks again!

I once read a hilarious story about someone trying to explain the plot of this opera to Mrs. Thatcher. She kept breaking off to say: 'But that doesn't make sense!'

I think Gardelli would have been a good conductor for this one....shame he never seems to have recorded it. 

And, yes, bad to indifferent productions seem to proliferate for some reason. A friend of mine, who's been going to CG for the last fifty years, tells me they've never had a half-decent production of it.