Director

"He was your brother... You are avenged, Mother!"
Azucena
When Count Luna and the troubadour Manrico not only find themselves as enemies in a bloody civil war, but also fall in love with the same woman, a fatal tragedy unfolds: Leonora poisons herself, and Manrico is executed by Luna, who then learns that he killed his own brother, believed to be long lost. Manrico had grown up unrecognized by Azucena, who once witnessed the old Count Luna burn her mother at the stake. Deeply traumatized, Azucena swore revenge, kidnapped the count's younger son, and accidentally killed her own child in his place.
With his drama "El Trovador" ( The Troubadour) , Antonio García Gutiérrez wrote the most successful and popular stage work of the Spanish Romantic era in 1836. Giuseppe Verdi was so captivated by this dark romance of love and hate, jealousy and revenge that he used it as the basis for his opera Il Trovatore in 1849/50, without a commission and thus without a guarantee of a premiere . In it, he found the age-old motif of fraternal strife intertwined with the questions of fate, chance, and inner necessity that had always fascinated him. He knew how to carve his characters out of this bizarre story in a highly sophisticated way. His musical imagination was ignited by their contradictions, their imprisonment, and their longings.

The Troubadour

Staatstheater Hannover

The star of this hilarious comedy is a worldly-wise mother, sung by a bass-baritone: a dream role for ensemble member Hovhannes Karapetyan. The action takes place in a theater and depends entirely on the whims, power struggles, and relationship dramas of the singers who have gathered there to rehearse a new opera. Mamma Agata is actually only employed as a cleaner at the theater, but unexpectedly shakes up the entire ensemble and reminds everyone of what they once dreamed of in their lives… In Wolfgang Nägele's production, conductor Paul Taubitz and the orchestra also take center stage.

La Mamma!: Comic Opera: by Gaetano Donizetti

Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden

Harrison Birtwistle’s opera ain’t for the fainthearted. A man throws a baby in the fire, stabs his wife Judy, searching for lovely Polly, who he wants to marry, carrying out further murders before he finally finds her. Benjamin Britten proposed the young composer Birtwistle for an opera commissioned by the Aldeburgh Festival, because »he’s got more to say than his contemporaries«.

Director

Wolfgang Nägele

Events

Past events

13 - 25 Jun, 2026

The Troubadour · Staatstheater Hannover

Feb 15 - Jun 24, 2026

La Mamma!: Comic Opera: by Gaetano Donizetti · Staatstheater Wiesbaden

About

Wolfgang Nägele hasn't added a bio