Manrico, the tenor troubadour in Il Trovatore, may be the biggest patsy among all the operatic heroes created by Giuseppe Verdi. Just stir up a little trouble and Manrico will dash off to get involved—usually with disastrous results. At the end of Act I he rushes forth to outduel the evil Count di Luna, but he spares the count's life and later gets stabbed for his trouble. At the end of Act III he races to rescue his adoptive mother Azucena; both end up in prison.
The woman in Manrico's life, Leonora, is not much help. In Act IV she tries to...
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