Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi. Short summary

5 seconds

Fernando, the captain of the guard, wakes his subordinates who have fallen asleep on guard duty. The commander warns the guards that the Count wanders near the castle at night and may catch them asleep at their post.

1 minute

The guards on guard duty at the castle of Count di Luna have fallen asleep. When Fernando, the chief of guards, saw this, he began to wake them and send them back to their post.

The commander attributed such behavior to the aristocrat’s love of night walks and the fact that during one of these he could catch his guards off-guard. Di Luna likes to stroll to the possessions of the Duchess Leonora.

The guards ask the commander to tell them the story of Di Luna’s brother so that they will not fall asleep while performing their own duties. The commander decides to go along with them and tells the story with interest.

The story originates with the eldest member of the Di Luna family. He had two sons. Deep in the night, when all the inhabitants of the castle were asleep, a gypsy woman broke into the room of the youngest son, who later bewitched him.

She was banished even though she assured him that only happiness awaited the boy. After a while, the child’s condition began to deteriorate. The gypsy woman was found and later burned at the stake.