Richie Goulding is whistling, or humming, or singing, parts
of Ferrando's "All'erta!" from the beginning of
Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore. This long
melodramatic aria gets the opera off to a rousing start.
All'erta! means "On guard!" or "Be on the alert!"
Ferrando, a captain of the guards in the palace of Aliaferia,
sings it to his chorus of sleepy men-at-arms as he comes on
stage, telling them to do their job. To wake up, they ask him
to narrate the dreadful tale of their former ruler, the old
Count di Luna. Ferrando obliges them, saying that they must
know the former Count was blessed with two sons: the present
Count di Luna and his younger brother Garzia. The latter was
only a baby when his nurse awoke to find an old gypsy witch
standing next to his cradle and apparently casting spells on
him. Servants rushed in and seized the sorceress. She
protested her innocence, saying that she was only telling the
baby's horoscope. But the child sickened, and she was burned
at the stake. From the pyre she demanded that her daughter
Azucena avenge her death, and Azucena complied by stealing the
child. Pursuing her, Ferrando and other soldiers found a fire
with embers still smoking and the half-burned bones of a
child: "d'un bambino—ohimè—l'ossame / Bruciato a mezzo,
fumante ancor!"
This bloodcurdling story sets the soldiers on edge, and
Ferrando completes the job by telling them that the old witch
still haunts the area as a spirit, creeping about the roof at
night and flying through the air. An old man died when she
appeared before him, in the form of an owl, at the hour of
midnight . . . At that moment a clock strikes twelve, and all
the soldiers rush to their posts, uttering maledictions.