Based on Schiller's play of the same name, Don Carlos was written for the Paris Opéra in 1865-66 in the tradition of a French grand opera. Repeatedly revised and performed in Italian as Don Carlo, the opera is seen here in the version that Verdi prepared for Modena in 1886. In many respects, this is Verdi's most ambitious and most forward-looking work.
Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Fabrizio Ventura
Stars: Giacomo Prestia, Mario Malagnini, Simone Piazzola, Luciano Montanaro, Cellia Costea, Alla Pozniak.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2812962/
23rd Verdi opera.
Premiere 1867, Salle Le Peletier (Paris Opéra)
Place: Spain
Time: around 1650
Filmed at Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti di Modena
(smaller than Parma, bigger than Busetto)
Very competent cast, not young. Amazing they don't have more IMDb credits.
Outline: Carlo, prince of Spain, meets his betrothed Elisabetta, and they fall in love. But father Filippo decides to marry her himself. Carlo's friend Rodrigo convinces Carlo to advocate for the people of Flanders, who are treated badly under Spanish reign. But father Filippo will have none of it. Princess Eboli falls for Carlo, but has an affair with Filippo; when Carlo rejects her, she sabotages Elisabetta's marriage, accusing Elisabetta & Carlo of an affair, putting them in mortal danger. Filippo consults the Grand Inquisitor about putting his son Carlo to death, and GI relates it to God sacrificing his own son. Rodrigo gets imprisoned and dies. Carlo is supposed to be rescued from his fatal sentence by a monk who might be his grandfather, but that was not at all clear in this production. (They also didn't make clear that some heretics were about to be burned.)
Yes, this is the same Don Carlo lineage as in Verdi's Ernani.
Excellent costumes, good sets, good singing/acting. Just don't like the length (and this is the short version; the original for Paris is 5 hrs), and the story doesn't engage me. If you've got 3.5 hrs, seems like more should happen, or we should know our characters better. Otello does both, and in less time.
I own a Salzburg production with H.von Karajan & J.Carreras, watched it in October and praised it here. But I complained about vagueness there too.
In 2 lectures on Don Carlo, the Great Course discusses Verdi's life in Busetto, including the beginning of his relationship with Teresa Stolz, and examines three episodes at the beginning of Act IV:
1. The orchestral prelude.
2. King Philip’s subsequent aria “Ella giammai m’amò!” (“No, she never loved me!”).
3. The opening section of Philip’s interview/duet with the Grand Inquisitor
4. (end of Act IV) Princess Eboli's rage and lament
Per the 2012 featurette, without naming the source of world-wide most-performed rankings, this is 11th among Verdi's operas, 64th among all operas. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics).
Unitel, cond. Gelmetti; 8-
