The text of Verdi's opera is by Cammarano, after the drama, El Trovador, by Gutierrez.
It's a complicated story. We are in Spain in the fifteenth century. ThereΓÇÖs been a rebellion. The king's army is commanded by the Count di Luna.
The Count has a secret sorrow. His brother was stolen in infancy by a gypsy. The boys' father had previously burnt the gypsy's mother as a witch. We all think the stolen infant was burnt in revenge.
Meanwhile, Leonora, the queen's lady-in-waiting, has a crisis of loyalty. She's in love with a troubadour, called Manrico, who serenades her nightly. But he's the leader of the rebel army. Furthermore, the Count di Luna is in love with her too. While she's confiding in a friend, they both turn up and fight over her. Manrico falls.
In Act Two we find that Manrico was only wounded. He's at home being nursed by his mother. She's a gypsy, called Azucena. She passes the time by telling the sad tale of her own mother's fate. A Count had burned her as a witch. This was so upsetting that Azucena, intending to burn the Count's baby in revenge, got confused and burnt her own child instead.
What Azucena doesn't reveal is that Manrico is the surviving child, and therefore the Count Di Luna's brother. ( By now the audience probably has a pretty shrewd suspicion about this, though it hasn't occurred to Manrico.)
A messenger arrives. Leonora is entering a convent. Manrico rushes off to stop her. DI Luna and his followers have the same idea. Manrico gets there first and takes Leonora to Castellor.
Di Luna and his army besiege Castellor. Azucena is hanging round the camp. She's picked up, recognised and condemned to be burnt.
Manrico hears the verdict while preparing to be married. He singes about a son's love for his mother and rushes off to the rescue.
He ends up in prison beside her. Leonora begs Di Luna to spare her lover. He agrees on condition that she'll marry him instead. She accepts. Then she sneaks off and takes poison.
The poison is slow-working. Leonora has time for a prison visit. When Manrico finds out what she's done he curses her. She dies. Bereft and furious, Di Luna has Manrico executed.
" Ah ha !, says Azucena, " you've just killed your own brother. " Which pleases her because now her mother is revenged.
