Gradually recordings of the whole 1939 season at Covent Garden are becoming available on disc. This one is invaluable for giving us the young (28-year-old) Bjorling in his Covent Garden debut, singing Manrico magnificently. In the lyrical parts of the role his voice is at once plangent, flexible and used with a fine regard for legato and words. Then in ''Di quella pira'', here sung in the original key (he later transposed it down a semitone), he sets the house alight with the exciting ardour and fire of his delivery. Yet in the duet with Azucena in the final scene he shows a nobility of phrasing, and some gentle accents, that are ideal for this side of the troubadour's character. Here is a piece of operatic history that shouldn't be missed. Bjorling is worthily supported. Cigna, not everyone's soprano, here shows that she is an old-fashioned spinto with a breadth of phrase to match. Her Act 4 aria may not be ideally flexible or exact, but its power of utterance and depth of feeling are truly Verdian and the recording allows us to hear how it rang out into the house.
Wettergren does not carry the weight for Azucena's early solos, but one soon comes to admire her sincerity of purpose and sense of style, not least in the final scene where Azucena's muddled thoughts and sense of guilt are made manifest in many a pertinent utterance (how marvellous Verdi's invention is throughout this scene). Basiola is one of those many Italian baritones active in the 1930s that we cast envious eyes on today when the breed is in decline. His delivery has fire and bite, delineating Luna's implacable nature. He and Cigna provide real Italianate ping in ''Mira d'acerbe'': one can almost feel the excitement running through the house. And this is one of many pieces that benefit from Gui's rhythmically alert, pointful direction, often revealing detail overlooked by more ordinary conductors.
Although there is some distortion, the sound is tolerable. Not so on the bonus: extracts from a 1938 broadcast from Rome of Forza, where it calls for an ear of faith to catch the obviously interesting Leonora of Cigna. However, for the Trovatore this issue is worth every penny of the asking price.'