Don Carlo/Don Carlos
An alternative title: Politics, the power of the Catholic Church, love and duty.
I must begin with my all-time reference audio recording of Don Carlo, namely the one from 1970, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, with Domingo, Caballé, Verrett, Milnes and Raimondi. It has the Fontainebleau Act (which makes sense dramatically, presenting the would-have-been married couple of Don Carlo and Elisabetta meeting for the first time and really falling in love, instead of all of that being just a fait accompli) with its marvellous music for the young lovers never to be united. Without it there would not be a single happy moment in the opera. I know that my enthusiasm about this recording is not universal, but for me it's special. What I'm trying to do here is to compare five performances of Don Carlo/Don Carlos on DVD.
Perhaps it should be noted that there are several versions of the opera, perhaps more than any other opera of Verdi. For practical reasons it is most commonly performed in its four-act version, omitting the said Fontainebleau act, but lasting long enough for an opera evening. At the other end is the Abbado audio recording with absolutely everything Verdi wrote for this opera, approaching Wagnerian propositions. Then we have versions in Italian and French, the latter being the language of the premiere in Paris.
Let us begin with the oldest performance, which comes from the Met (1983) conducted by James Levine. The setup is completely traditional. Alas, here the performance would be better without the Fontainebleau act, which is curiously unsuccessful. Domingo, singing the title role, almost steals the show. He stands miles apart from the rest as a singer who can not only act and sing at the same time, but act with his formidable voice and with his facial expressions that seem to reflect perfectly the emotions of the character. As Elisabetta, Mirella Freni disappoints in the Fontainebleau act. She had already recorded the role of Elisabetta with Herbert von Karajan, but in the usual four-act version, quite convincingly. So, maybe the first act here was just new to her. It made me fear the worst for the rest, but she sings admirably after that, coping well enough with "Tu, che le vanità". Grace Bumbry as princess Eboli is formidable. I don't know if the eye-patch she is wearing is part of the production or if she is suffering from some acute medical opthalmological condition - it certainly doesn't affect her voice. It would be interesting to hear her sing the role of Elisabetta! She seems to have the high notes well within her reach. Nicolai Ghiaurov, as Philip II, seems to be the most amiable singer of the role. At first I thought that he cannot show his real feelings publicly, but when we come to the beautiful soliloquy, when he is alone and sings of the wife who has never loved her, one would expect some kind of feelings of sorrow, maybe even despair, even from a king. None of that, he just sings the aria most beautifully. Maybe the fact that he was already married to Mirella Freni IRL (until his death in 2004) had something to do with that. Louis Quilico gives a strong performance of Rodrigo. Overall, apart from the first act, everyone seems to be at home here, but our quest for the best Don Carlo/Don Carlos continues.
The next performance chronologically is the one from the Salzburg Easter festival 1986, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. His roster of singers is very impressive: José Carreras as Don Carlo, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip II, Piero Cappuccilli as Rodrigo, Matti Salminen as The Grand Inquisitor, Agnes Baltsa as the princess Eboli, and as a relative newcomer, Fiamma Izzo d'Amico, as Elisabetta. The four-act version is used. The setup is completely traditional here, too. An annoying fact is that the subtitles are bright yellow and I had to turn them off. Apparently yellow subtitles are used in the far east, but I can't stand them. Surprisingly, the picture quality seems a bit grainier than in the Met recording. Carreras is in fine voice here, but interestingly, after having just seen Domingo in the earlier performance, his face remains almost expressionless throughout the opera. That doesn't mean that his singing is expressionless. Maybe it's just a question of temperament. What comes to Domingo as a natural part of singing must be a special gift. Fiamma Izzo d'Amico fails to impress me until "Tu, che le vanità", which is good enough, but this is a whole opera where she should be "in it" from the beginning. Another of Karajan's finds, presumably. Cappuccilli's Rodrigo is pure luxury. Baltsa's "O don fatale" is not for the weak-hearted. She was all the rage in the eighties, especially in Rossini. What became of her? Matti Salminen as The Grand Inquisitor with his Wagnerian voice certainly puts fear in the heart of even a king. The king, Furlanetto, sings well, but as with the older performance, I miss something in the "Ella giammai m'amò!".
A big leap in time to the year 1996, to the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris. Here we have Don Carlos in French, conducted by Antonio Pappano and the Fontainebleau act successfully presented. There is some extra music in the beginning of the garden scene and after Posa's death, nothing remarkable though. The general setup is modernized traditional. But what we really have here is the Elisabeth of Karita Mattila, who surpasses even my reference, Caballé! She doesn't look a bit like a Frenchwoman, but simply a modern Nordic woman she is, up to her hairdo. She just sings perfectly, with a fresh, healthy, clear, strong and beautiful soprano voice. And I'm not saying this because she is my compatriot. Roberto Alagna as Don Carlos sings magnificently, too. I hadn't realized that he is so short. José van Dam is a reliable Philippe. Thomas Hampson as Rodrigue is handsome both vocally and visually. Waltraud Meier as Princess Eboli is a surprise to me, because she has sung so much Wagner lately, but her voice is flexible enough to handle the florid passages of the Saracen Song. The Grand Inquisitor of Eric Halvfarson is scary indeed.
After the previous version I thought that "there it is!". How was I to know? The next in line is Don Carlo from De Nederlandse Opera (2004), conducted by Riccardo Chailly. I have never seen so imaginative and innovative staging before. Everything takes place in a giant crypt with marble plaques of former rulers and other important people. This backround is changed only for the nightly garden scene, when a starry sky descends. And it works perfectly like this! Robert Lloyd gives a magnificient performance as Philip, and for once, I hear real sorrow in his aria. As Don Carlo, we have Rolando Villazón, who is vocally impeccable, but looks like a madman most of the time (Mr Bean comes to mind). Well, if your father should marry the girl you are in love with, wouldn't you go crazy? Dwayne Croft as Rodrigo is a new name to me, but not the worse for that. Violeta Urmana as Princess Eboli leaves nothing to be desired. Jaakko Ryhänen as The Grand Inquisitor, is very impressive. What I had feared most was the Elisabetta of Amanda Roocroft, my favourite Fiordiligi on video, but she is adequate, although stretched to her limits by the role.
The performance from La Scala (2008) seems to me to be a mere dress rehearsal, and not particularly successful even as such. Here we have completely modern and simplistic sets (although cleverly used), but traditional costumes, except for the chorus in the auto-da-fé scene, where its members are wearing fairly modern clothing. Why? Child counterparts are used for Don Carlo, Rodrigo and Elisabetta, as a remembrance of happier times in their youth, but also taking part of the present. This seems a bit ridiculous with Elisabetta, whom Don Carlo did meet only once before, already believing to be her fiancé. But then we have the singers. To begin with, Stuart Neill singing Don Carlo is so obese that it's embarrassing to watch him move on the stage. His tenor voice is acceptable, but nothing to write home about. Dolora Zajick as Eboli is almost as incredible cursing her beauty. Fiorenza Cedolins as Elisabetta remains a question mark to me. How can someone sing a nearly perfect Norma and remain an also-ran in everything else? Dalibor Jenis as Rodrigo is very good (he even uses his trill twice), but as much as he wants to save La Fiandra, he cannot save this performance. Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip is not that bad either. But as a whole, this is best left untouched.
The final verdict: Forget the La Scala version. If you want Don Carlos in French, there is no competition. Even if you can stand it in French, Karita Mattila is worth hearing here. In Italian, the production of De Nederlandse Opera would be my first choice, not least because of its modern picture and sound quality. In an ideal world we should have the performance from Amsterdam with Placido Domingo (from 1983) and Karita Mattila (from 1996).