Italy Verdi, Don Carlo: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Refrain / Riccardo Chailly (conductor). Livestreamed on Medici.television from Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 7.12.2023. (JPr)
Manufacturing:
Staging – Lluís Pasqual
Units – Daniel Bianco
Costumes – Franca Squarciapino
Lighting – Pascal Mérat
Video – Franc Aleu
Choreography – Nuria Castejón
Solid:
Philip II – Michele Pertusi
Don Carlo – Francesco Meli
Rodrigo – Luca Salsi
The Grand Inquisitor – Jongmin Park
A Monk – Jongmin Park
The Monk (Charles V) – Huanhong Li
Elisabeth of Valois – Anna Netrebko
Princess Eboli – Elīna Garanča
Thibault – Elisa Verzier
The Depend of Lerma / Royal Herald – Jinxu Xiahou
A Voice from Heaven – Rosalia Cid
Flemish envoys – Chao Liu, Wonjun Jo, Huanhong Li, Giuseppe De Luca, Xhieldo Hyseni, Neven Crnić
Verdi’s 1867 Don Carlos (subsequently Don Carlo) had a really chequered historical past which concerned a certain quantity of neglect till the center of the 20 th century. From a libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle based mostly on Schiller’s 1787 dramatic poem Verdi produced a five-act work in French à la Meyerbeer, set in mid-sixteenth century Spain. The plot points have been principally the timeless ones of affection, politics and faith and concerned a primary act preface within the forest at Fontainebleau, the San Yuste monastery cloister of Charles V’s tomb, the monastery backyard, town sq. in Valladolid exterior the cathedral full with a website for burning heretics, and the gardens of the queen in Madrid the place ladies might be entertained. However there was extra: the plot’s tragedy encompasses different scenes within the king’s gloomy examine, a darkish dungeon the place Don Carlos is imprisoned and a return to the cloister for an odd denouement.
The opera was precisely so long as all this sounds and through its unique (apparently) 270 rehearsals Don Carlos wanted substantial cuts. The opening of Act I used to be dropped and a few duets have been both minimize fully or have been shortened. Additional adjustments have been made after the Paris premiere in March 1867 after which the libretto was translated into Italian as Don Carlo, for additional performances in Naples (1872), Milan (1884) and Modena (1886) with Verdi engaged on the opera each step of the best way. Initially, he continued to focus on the duets however by the point the work reached Milan, the entire of Act I had gone ensuing within the so-called ‘Milan model’. Additional adjustments have been made in Modena to provide a five-act model which is typically staged and is considered Verdi’s final ideas on the opera. Solely after the well-known Luchino Visconti manufacturing of this ‘Modena model’ in 1958 at Covent Backyard did Don Carlo – after a long time of indifference – turn into extra recurrently carried out and recorded. For Catalan-born theatre director Lluís Pasqual’s new manufacturing at La Scala what we noticed and heard was predictably the four-act ‘Milan model’.
However, the story that Don Carlo tells remains to be prolonged past its pure size and noticeably so in a manufacturing like this one the place the auto-da-fé ‘celebration’ on the finish of Act I is superfluous. Perversely the gang scenes and the humiliation of the heretics does present many of the dramatic fireworks (!) in the entire lengthy night, as a result of elsewhere the refrain is simply requested to sing the place it sits or stands; because the principal singers do too more often than not.
Though Verdi and his librettists play quick and unfastened with historic truths there are undoubtedly some vital points in Don Carlo, related to the twenty-first century. Central to the plot is the oppression of the individuals of Flanders by the Spanish within the sixteenth century. We hear requires freedom, about murdered kids and Philip II, the King of Spain, sings at one level how ‘with out bloodshed I couldn’t deliver peace’. Later Don Carlo – who helps the Flemish trigger – sings of a nation of dying individuals stretching out their fingers to him to ‘save a dying nation’. Absolutely nobody watching Verdi’s opera now may fail to consider the continuing Israel-Gaza battle and different related ones. So that’s the politics: the faith entails the Catholic church headed by the Grand Inquisitor who regards the Protestants in The Netherlands as heretics to be brutally subjugated. Love within the opera centres on the truth that Carlo was as soon as betrothed to Elisabeth de Valois, a French princess, earlier than she married his father, Philip II, and so is now his mom! Princess Eboli can be in love with Carlo and her jealousy will result in Elisabeth and Carlo’s downfall.
Not one of the advanced points in Don Carlo which resonate with us at present are addressed on this staging by Lluís Pasqual and his collaborators. It’s so historically ‘stand and ship’ and ‘thud and mistake’ Verdi that it may have been placed on at any time over the last century and extra. We even have performers of ‘restricted stature’ concerned in Eboli’s Act I ‘leisure’ and I needed to double-check it was 2023!
Daniel Bianco supplies principally a single set that includes a stage deep central tower which may open and shut and that is on some stage-wide steps on which the refrain will largely do their sitting or standing. There have been scene setting grilles for the Act I monastery, and jail bars got here down within the ultimate act. Some silhouettes have been proven on the closed cylindrical ‘tower’, corresponding to two massive laurels for Elisabeth’s backyard, a full moon, and a big cross notably for Philip II’s examine in Act III. Franca Squarciapino’s luxurious costumes, black largely – although some gold – appear genuine for mid-sixteenth century Spain; suppose, bejewelled robes with typical hairstyles of the time, doublets and ruff collars, breastplates and helmets.
Many of the finances – which will need to have been huge – was blown on the massive golden altar piece exhibiting the Stations of the Cross through the auto-da-fé scene. We initially see it from behind with the walkways wanting like the hearth escapes on an outdated tenement constructing earlier than it rotates to, firstly, present Philip II within the central area of interest after which the Grand Inquisitor in his vestments. The bloodied, almost bare, hooded heretics are dragged in and consigned under floor and the burning shouldn’t be elaborated on with merely some small flames proven. On the finish of the opera whereas Eboli engineers Elisabeth’s escape from the vengeance of Philip II and the Grand Inquisitor, Don Carlo climbs on a statue of Charles V and sinks under the stage as his white-robed grandfather surprisingly comes again from the lifeless.
If Lluís Pasqual’s Don Carlo does something optimistic it’s to place the give attention to the singers, conductor and orchestra. The singing was uniformly glorious and nearly as good as you would possibly anticipate to listen to nowadays. The forged’s performing skills weren’t examined since they have been largely rooted to 1 spot on the stage and dealing with ahead and it was left to their expressive voices to point out any real emotion.
Francesco Meli sings with a beautiful open-throated tenor sound from his Act I ‘Io l’ho perduta!’ by to the farewell duet ‘Ma lassù ci vedremo in un mondo migliore’ with Elisabeth in Act IV. Nevertheless, he’s a really undemonstrative singer the place vocal excellence appears paramount to him and secondary to creating his relationships with others onstage seem actual. Baritone Luca Salsi as Roderigo delivered intelligently crafted textual content with burnished tone and seamless legato and ‘Io morrò, ma lieto in core’ capped off his fairly convincingly dying scene. Earlier Salsi resisted Philip II’s entreaties with authority, as Michele Pertusi despatched a chill down the backbone together with his hushed intimations of the Grand Inquisitor’s nefarious intentions. I perceive that on the evening Pertusi was not 100% however that was solely heard in his bass voice on one or two events. General, it’s exhausting to think about a extra convincing portrayal of a hectoring and intimidating king succumbing to paranoia than Pertusi’s, albeit one laced with vulnerability as evinced by his extraordinarily shifting ‘Ella giammai m’amò’. Nothing on this opera is extra terrifying than Philip II’s confrontation with the Grand Inquisitor within the third act. Jongmin Park maybe doesn’t have the bass sonority Ain Anger – who he changed due to sickness throughout rehearsals – would have had, however his sombre tones made the Grand Inquisitor’s fanatical rage very clear.
Mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča is without doubt one of the main singers of this technology and as Princess Eboli displayed large vocal agility, safe excessive notes and heat chest tones. Her Verdian mezzo villainy was sometimes larger-than-life and never far faraway from that of her Ortrud I watched her sing not too long ago (overview right here). In Act III Eboli provides voice to her regret – about doing with Phillip II what she accuses Elisabeth of getting as much as with Don Carlo! – and Garanča’s ‘O don fatale’ was one of many highlights of the efficiency and has it been bettered in my expertise, I’m not positive.
Final, however in no methods least, it was fantastic to have Anna Netrebko in such radiant and imperious kind as Elisabeth and giving us such a multi-faceted account of Don Carlo’s unobtainable love. Netrebko was authoritatively regal, defiant and passionate, along with her ‘Tu che le vanità’ stopping the present due to the massive ovation it acquired. Maybe there wasn’t as a lot of the human fragility some would possibly deliver to the function, and which made Netrebko’s Elisabeth a primary cousin to her Turandot.
The remainder of the forged and the refrain splendidly supported the principal singers. As anticipated, Riccardo Chailly proved fully at residence on this music and generated compelling Verdian drama. Chailly highlighted with conspicuous element the contrasts between the braggadocio of the general public pronouncements in Don Carlo with its troubled undercurrents. His orchestra was exemplary, notably the horns and the woodwinds, and there was a virtuosic cello solo for the Act IV prelude resulting in Philip II’s monologue. Lastly, is it my ears or has Verdi’s music for Don Carlo been closely influenced by Wagner?
Jim Pritchard
