DON CARLO
DIRECTOR: Nicholas Hytner
CONDUCTOR: Yannick Nézet-Ségiun
CAST: Roberto Alagna, Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Anna Smirnova, Eric Halfvarson
RUNNING TIME: 269 minutes
RATING: HHHI
To opera connoisseurs it is common knowledge that the prerequisite for a production of Verdi’s Don Carlo is a modest, hand-picked clutch of the greatest singers in the world.
This first production of arguably the composer’s greatest opera at New York’s Met after an absence of more than 30 years, nearly clinched it. The performance of the matinée on December 11 (filmed in HD) at times reflects, musically and dramatically, a Shakespearean allure which is seldom achieved, even when Verdi’s Macbeth, Otello or Falstaff reach the operatic stage.
Verdi is above all a musical dramatist. In Friedrich Schiller’s verse drama of 1787, Don Carlo, the composer and his librettists, Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, found the ideal material for him to extend the basic spectrum he already handled so well in the operatic adaptation of the two serious Shakespearean dramas. Like the latter playwright, Schiller took liberties with the history he des-cribed to enhance its dramatic potential.
Here a kaleidoscope of themes vies for attention. Central is the protest of the individual against the crushing demands of a tyrannical state, which is subject to the authority and control of an all powerful (Roman) Catholic universe: patriarchal, and wielded below from above.
Among the sombre splendour, mysticism, religious fervour and harrowing manipulation we find in Don Carlo, Verdi also managed to identify and secure the kind of characters from whom he could elicit the richest possible exploration of psychological complexity.
It is on this level that this produc-tion works its magic through the interpersonal communicative intensity established by British stage director Nicholas Hytner. It is light years removed from the kind of clichéd cardboard characters com-bined with wooden movements we still too often experience on operatic stages.
In the taxing title role, tenor Roberto Alagna sings most of the time with a full-throated intensity. It’s a pity that an arresting phraseo-logy and feeling for rich colouristic word painting is too seldom part of it. Carlo’s ill-adjusted neurotic personality was not strongly in evidence either.
Still, Alagna managed the tour de force prerequisite.
Marina Poplavskaya elicits special vocal qualities as Elisabeth. She’s not a conventional Verdi singer, but one with the kind of musical sensibilities, which often reflect different qualities from prescribed norms. Dramatically she suggests a wide range of emotions.
The Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto has regal stature combined with an often-deep, stentorian voice to make the Spanish King Philip a justly feared figure. However, his vulnerability as expressed in the inspired recitative and aria during the first scene of Act IV, was an illuminating piece of three-dimensional dramatic charac-terisation, oozing introverted and critical self-examination.
As in his portrayal of the title role in Ambroise Thomas’s opera Hamlet in April, Simon Keenlyside as Rodrigo brought a theatrical intensity full of contrasts to his role. On a dramatic and vocal level his forthright focus on the essential feature of varied emotions was evident. At times he was Iago-like, but without the shady, villainous side.
Far less successful is the casting of Anna Smirnova in the role of Princess Eboli. She gives a too generalised reading of the part, often too raw, punchy and Slavic sounding, and lacking the sensual subtle inflections Verdi requires.
A terrifying scene was the sinister to-and-fro conflict between King Philip and the Great Inquisitor, sung by the bass Eric Halvarsen. It’s also magnificent thanks to Verdi’s punctuated orchestration.
Bob Crowley’s economical sets and costume designs in combination with Mark Henderson’s lighting are awesome. The production’s vigour is driven by the amazing French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who inspires the orchestra, singers and chorus to the highest levels, while the nobility, breadth and the subtle colouring of the score is in evidence from Act III onwards. - Tonight