Anita Rachvelishvili in Il trovatore at the Teatro Real in Madrid, July 2026 / Photo: Javier Del Real

This fall, Anita Rachvelishvili and Saioa Hernandez will make rare appearances in New York. Parterre Box marks the occasion by sharing a snippet of the two of them in a recently recorded Il trovatore in Madrid from earlier this summer.

Rachvelishvili, who will appear at Carnegie Hall next week with the Greek National Opera in a program of Greek music, returned to Azucena, one of her pre-vocal crisis calling cards, with this run in Madrid. As she continues to retool her voice, Rachvelishvili has approached her old roles with caution; last summer, she gave one performance of Carmen in Verona and last month was scheduled for a singular concert Dalila in Wroclaw. Later this fall, she sings her first Ulrica in London with no further Verdi performances announced. She will, however, return to Greek National Opera twice for new roles next season: Baba the Turk in March and Suzuki during the summer.

Then, at the beginning of November, the polarizing verista Saioa Hernandez makes her Met debut as Tosca. Hernandez has not appeared in New York since the Teatro Real presented a gala concert at Carnegie Hall in June 2025, and later this season returns to the Trovatore Leonora in Paris as well as Norma, a role it appears she has not sung since 2016, in Berlin. She’ll also sing Turandot and Adriana Lecouvreur elsewhere in Europe.

And what of today’s Manrico, Vittorio Grigolo? While he is still persona non grata at the Met, he is starring in a high profile new Faust in Milan with Marina Rebeka and Alex Esposito that opens in just under two weeks.

Verdi: Il trovatore, “Madre?… non dormi?… Ciel!.. non m’inganna quel fioco lume?”

Vittorio Grigolo
Anita Rachvelishvili
Saoia Hernandez
Juan Jesus Rodriguez

Condctor: Nicola Luisotti
Teatro Real, Madrid
11 July 2026
In-house