Donna Leonora on the verge of eloping with her lover Don Alvaro is party to the accidental shooting of her father. Fleeing from her brother Don Carlo who swears to kill her and avenge his father, Leonora takes refuge at the monastery of the "Madonna of the Angels", in hope of finding peace. The Father Superior takes her to an abandoned hermits cave where she vows to remain an unhappy, rejected woman cursed by heaven and earth, aspiring only to give herself to God. Cruel fate brings together lover Don Alvaro and brother Don Carlo in a a duel outside the cave. Carlo is wounded, Leonora runs to comfort her brother but is fatally stabbed in his dying vengeance. Don Alvaro, bereft and in the act of suicide at losing his beloved curses all humanity. This is the historic first recording of the original 1862 version as commissioned by the Imperial Theatre, St. Petersburg from Verdi.—Anonymous