Verdi specifically requested the libretto to include both these dialogues and his setting of both is masterly. The opera centres around two quite remarkable duets: the interview between Philip and Posa, where the latter impresses the king with his fervent pleas to end his oppression of Flanders, only to then reveal his innermost concerns to his subject then, the confrontation between Philip and the Grand Inquisitor, where the king explores the validity of sacrificing his son, only for the Inquisitor to demand that Posa be handed over. However, there is an argument that the four act version is dramatically tauter, with a pleasing symmetry in that the opening and closing scenes taking place in the monastery, and also that Schiller had never set the Fontainebleau meeting in the first place.Įither way, the opera’s grandeur and distinctively dark tinta mark it out as something special in the Verdi canon. Act I also contains material used in Carlos and Elisabeth’s two further duets, acting as musical reminiscences, which rather lose their point if Act I has been excised. The meeting with Elisabeth better explains Carlos’s tormented state later in the opera, particularly the opening of Act II, which takes place in the cloisters of St Yuste, where he confides in his childhood friend, Rodrigo, the Marquis of Posa, who persuades him to champion the cause of Flanders in their famous friendship duet. The Fontainebleau act was the main casualty when Verdi revised his opera for Milan in 1884. The real Carlos certainly didn’t travel to Fontainebleau, but there is a charming story that the young Philip, aged sixteen, had travelled incognito to glimpse his first bride, Maria of Portugal (Carlos’ mother). Verdi has Carlos wandering through the forest to view his intended bride they meet and fall in love, only to have their hopes instantly dashed with the news that she is destined for Philip instead. This scene, though referred to in Schiller, was not actually set in his play, but largely stems from Eugène Cormon’s play Philippe II Roi d’Espagne of 1846. Throw in a jealous lady-in-waiting (Princess Eboli – in real life Ana de Mendoza, wife of Ruy Gomez, Philip’s childhood friend and close adviser), the idealistic Marquis of Posa (friend of Carlos, later confidante of the king) and an imposing Grand Inquisitor, and you have the rich ingredients for a sprawling plot.Ī fictitious meeting in the forest of Fontainebleau was set by Verdi and his librettists, Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, to form Act I. Elisabeth was originally intended as a bride for Carlos, a central part of the peace treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis between France and Spain, before it was decided that Philip would marry her himself (this being just a year after the death of his second wife, Mary Tudor). ![]() Schiller and Verdi focus on the public and private lives of Philip II, his son Don Carlos and Elisabeth de Valois (Philip’s third wife). Don Carlos rightly found its place at the forefront of Verdi’s mature works – a flawed masterpiece, yes, but one which is loved by many.īased on Schiller, the plot explores a convoluted knot of relationships in sixteenth century Spain, with six characters entangled in a dangerous web of church and state politics. Two key productions brought about an important critical reassessment of the opera’s merits: Margaret Webster’s, which inaugurated Rudolf Bing’s tenure in charge at the Met in 1950, and Luchino Visconti’s Covent Garden production of 1958. In the twentieth century, Don Carlos had nearly disappeared off the map altogether, with just a handful of performances at the Metropolitan Opera in 1920-3 (featuring, at various points, Giovanni Martinelli, Rosa Ponselle, Giuseppe De Luca and Fyodor Chaliapin – dream casting!) and three performances at Covent Garden under Thomas Beecham in 1933, before being cast back onto the operatic shelf. ![]() Therefore Don Carlos, existing in any number of editions and in two languages, makes choices for the prospective buyer confusing. ![]() Originally conceived in French, for the Paris Opéra, the work was for years performed and recorded in its Italian translation, before French versions began to appear. Years down the line, further cuts were made by the composer (‘Since my legs have to be cut off, I prefer to sharpen and apply the knife myself’), reducing the work to four acts in 1884, before approving a five act version, with the original Act I restored, in 1886. ![]() The opera was so long that Verdi had been obliged to cut whole scenes before the opening night so that the public could catch the last train home to the suburbs. It aims at a style – but only aims.’ Critical reaction was mixed, but Georges Bizet wasn’t alone in his negative response to the première of Verdi’s Don Carlos in Paris on 11 th March 1867, which centred on the accusation that it was too Wagnerian.
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