No full-length study has ever been written of Il trovatore, an opera that was Verdi"s most successful in his own day. This book aims to fill that gap, and in the process reviews some old and offers several new perspectives on theopera. Although focusing primarily on the music, the volume also traces the origins of the original play El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. In the process it offers a new and more comprehensive source for the drama, one thathas been overlooked by historians of Spanish literature. The book also explores the reception and diffusion of Il trovatore by studying contemporary reviews and letters. One of the more striking features of the successof Il trovatore in Northern Europe and the U.S. is the opera"s immediate and stunning popular success despite the many negative reviews by critics. Chusid includes a section on some of the more important performers of the opera inthe twentieth century (for example, Toscanini and Caruso), as well as a consideration of several of the more unusual contemporary stagings of the work mounted during the final decades of the century. In an epilogue, Martin Chusid explores the importance of Il trovatore for the history of the Italian Risorgimento. Martin Chusid is professor emeritus of music, New York University, and founding director of American Institute for VerdiStudies.