Don Carlo: Live from the Opera House

I have in front of me DVDs of four productions of Don Carlo and/or Don Carlos. Such a plethera of riches! This is a new opera for me as in the 40s, 50s, & 60s it was rarely done. Thus it has been most exciting over the last twenty to thirty five years to experience the rise in performances and the critical esteem of this longest of Verdi's ouvre. Having witnessed this deveopment and experiencing several productions at the Met and Lyric Chicago, I have grown more appreciative of this magnificent work and the various problems that are inherent in producing it. It has become my favorite Verdi and yet this monumental masterpiece is flawed and unwieldy because of its size and breadth. Schiller's poem drama of great length was itself a tirade against tyranny both secular and religeous. His was a Protestant point of view so the Catholic Church comes off not well but it was the Hapsburg tyranny that is the real villain in the play and in the opera. The opera has some of Verdi's most evocative music and the singers have to be the best and able to cope with the very strenuous vocal line. Just thinking of Furlanetto' Fillipo singing "Ella giammai m'amo" brings tears to my eyes. I've heard a line of great basses do this from Christoff and Ghiaurov to Van Dam and Miles but to my ears Furlanetto is Phillip II. The same is true with all the major roles. But lets get back to this DVD. The Hytner production at the ROH and subsequently seen broadcast from the Met live series is the one on this DVD. Some of the cast is different and I think the better for it. Overall I was most impressed by the Hytner concept. I must say that I was so involved in the intensity of the drama on stage that I didn't notice much of the scenery. It was fine by me and not obtrusive. I think it imperative to have all the Fountainbleau act be complete to fully understand why Elizabeth has to say yes to the marriage to Phillip even though she is in love with his son. The peasants plead with her. She has already encountered them and be friended them and it they not the noble people in this production that cause her to say "si". The Don Carlo of Villazon is adequate but no match to the Met broadcast of Roberto Alagna. Alagna appears on the du Chatelet version with the Posa of Hampson, a great pairing. Alagna is the best Don Carlo of the present time. Marina Poplavskaya is the Elizabeth and the more often I hear her the better I think she is. She was on the Met broadcast and is of great depth but reserved and very royal. The best of the day. (Her "Tu che le vanita" cannot match the Freni of 1982, however). The Eboli (whatever became of the eyepatch?) of Gnassi is adquate but on the Met broadcast Anna Smirnova did a better job particularly "Oh Don fatale". Again no match for Grace Bumbry of 1982 Met production under Levine. Simon Keenlyside is one of the great finds in opera in recent times. His Hamlet made me respect the opera. Now his Posa is the standard to match. He is trained as a lieder singer and it shows in the care of his enuciation and the care of each syllable. I still think the Hampson Posa of the du Chatalet production was more involved and more beautiful of voice. But Simon's star is still rising. All in all the Hytner production on this disc, even with it minor flaws is a great source of pleasure and appriciation of this great masterpiece. (But I wish it were the French version for it is a French Grand Opera)

I opened my set and put it in the DVD player with great anticipation although I admittedly was prepared for a bit of disappointment when I found out that Kaufmann was not to be the Carlos but the Villazon. Even so with memories of Pappano's great performance with the Chatelet forces this would surely be a superb evening in the theatre.

Alas, for me it was not so and on so many different levels I experienced disappointment. This production replaced the Visconti upon which an immense amount of praise had been lavished. It (the new production)is co-owned by the Met, ROH and the Norwegian Opera. I found the production unrealized and lacking in any sense of grandeur. At times it looked cheap and never evocative of the Spanish setting. The Bondy production was minimalist but one always had a sense of where you were. I wonder how Met audiences will respond?

Then there was the textual consideration. So much music has been discovered in the last thirty years and to ignore it seems to me to be wilful on the part of the powers that be especially since Pappano particiapated in the Chatelet production. True the Chatelet omitted the opening chorus which even the Met now includes, but why was the Act IV duet between Carlos and Fillipo omitted? The music is glorious and appropriate. So what we have is the version which has been standard for LP recordings. To hear all the music, sung in the right language one has to buy the Vienna/Konwitschny edition which includes every last note in a production which will offend many. The situation is not unlike Boris in which the musical director should decide what is to be omitted and what should be included. Don Carlos is a long opera and I have no love for the inclusion of the ballet which is ordinarily omitted. The Auto-da-Fe scene in the Vienna version is audacious and not particularly dramatic. The ROH version is also rendered less effective, although traditional, because of the inclusion of spoken dialogue on the part of the priest when he addresses the heretics. Whose idea was this?

And the singing? Villazon's Carlos was a very mixed bag. In the last few years tenors whose credentials have not included the word "spinto" have included this role on their CV. Alagna was subject to all kinds of criticism about making a foolhardy choice. He proved them wrong. His Carlos remains amoung the very best. Ramon Vargas in Vienna is another lyric who was canny enough to avoid the pitfalls of the role and come out a winner. Louis Lima another lyric apparently has not had a similar success. Villazon's vocal troubles are sufficiently documented not to be repeated here but he is clearly a weak link in a variable cast. he is not without imagination but Carlos is a long role, and while he has only one aria he is a major participant throughout the opera. Frequently he sounds at the end of his tether; there was a reason he did not return for the revival. The charismatic Keenlyside frequently seemed abstracted; one only has to compare his work with Hampton in the Chatelet production where he was involved and committed. Poplavskaya had been criticized for portraying the "ice princess", for having insufficient vocal thrust, for not being a spinto. Some of this is not without merit, but the role is a difficult one. When Milanov turned it down she was wise; afterall the aria comes in the last act; in the meantime she has to be a member of an ensemble in duets trios and quartets. Elizabeth's emotions are frozen since she is forced not to marry the man she loves but his father. A certain hauteur is required. My only criticism as regards the singing on these discs is her failure to sing any consonants so that much of the text is a vocalese--a beautiful one (exquisite pianos and pianissimos)but a vocalese nonetheless. Ganassi is another mezzo who stubs her toe in the role of Eboli. For a mezzo who has sung a great deal of Rossini one would think that her Veil Song would be a walk in the park. Well, it was better than Meir (Chatelet) but the small notes were barely articulated and the whole thing sounds effortful. O don fatale was somewhat better but her performance was essentially provincial. As an admirer of Robert Lloyd I am reluctant to comment. At 68 his vocalism is not steady and his contribution only added to my overall disappointment. True, the role is small, but that is a specious argument.

This is one of the few DVD's where I feel that I have been let down by the photography. I will admit that one of the many pleasures of watching a DVD are the closeups of the singers. I would be the first to admit that this is not the way one sees opera in the house. Well, I am not watching in the house but in my living room and the advantage of the closeup is exciting. The medium is visual and most producers and directors and the individuals making the decisions realize that. Here we have very few closeups and many medium and distant shots and to a certain extent I felt cheated.

My last comment is one that will be of little import to most, but I must voice it: Don Carlos is a French opera; Verdi did not participate in the Italian translation. Surely the Chatelet production made that evident. Of course having two Francophone singers in leading roles and a baritone whose French is idiomatic were major pluses. The soprano may be a Finn but her French was more than exemplary. In the end this DVD continues to remain at the top and not without good reason. The singing, the style and the production all put it at the lead. This is not to say that there could be an Italian version equally as effective, but it will take a different kind of effort than the one offered by ROH.

First of all, Don Carlo is my favorite opera. Second of all, I am the worst of vocal curmudgeons, i.e. I love and long for Corelli, Bergonzi, blah blah blah. But as entertainment intended for the big screen television, this is superb. The image quality is first rate; the singing is mostly first rate. Villazon may have cracked live, but on video he is excellent. Poplavskaya is exquisite. Furlanetto is excellent. Keelyside is excellent. Ganassi falls a little short vocally. The production is gorgeous. I cannot recommend this too highly, so long as you are getting it for the totality that is an opera DVD, and not just as another recording.

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