Don Carlos Naxos 8.660096–98
Verdi, Giuseppe
Du Locle, Camille; Mery, Joseph
Hold-Garrido, Alberto
Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra
Royal Swedish Opera Chorus
Cleveman, Lars; Hedlund, Klas; Leidland, Hilde; Martinpelto, Hillevi; Mattei,
Peter; Rundgren, Bengt; Ryhanen, Jaakko; Sorenson, Iwa; Tobiasson, Ingrid;
Wallen, Martti
Don Carlos is Verdi’s longest opera – in five acts. The French audience
expected grand opera in the style of Meyerbeer, with grandiose scenography,
expensive costumes, musical drama and elaborate ensembles, ballet and crowd
scenes. Verdi devised a ballet of twenty minutes and two crowd scenes. Much has
been made of Verdi’s impatience with the Paris Opéra. He admired the care
with which productions were mounted at the Opéra compared to the low standards
in Italy. He feared, however, that the very size and length of the projects
risked making them unmanageable and artistically flawed. Don Carlos was also
revised several times.
Don Carlos, however, is not an incoherent patchwork. With this opera Verdi
takes a big step towards the height of his genius, towards Aida, Otello and
Falstaff. One innovation in Don Carlos is the “conversation music”. There
are no recitatives but more of a connected lyrical-dramatic declamation
resulting in a new form of through-composed dialogue. The musical portrayal of
the characters too, the intensified interplay between orchestra and vocal parts,
shows a new breadth, depth and variety. The orchestra takes part in the inner
and outer action with its special creation of atmosphere and psychological
expression. Don Carlos is very much an opera of duets, but the duets are
dramatic dialogues in a flow of melodies and psychology of voice. It is also an
opera of great monologues, terzettos, marches and choruses in an unusually
modulated play of colours much inspired by the Spanish environment.
The première on 11th March 1867 was not a success. Verdi’s new style
confused both audience and critics. He was accused of Wagnerism, although he had
only heard one of Wagner’s overtures before composing Don Carlos. For us it
is hard to tell what the Wagnerian influence would be. There are no leitmotifs
but a few returning short motifs, serving as reminders of a certain
character.
Don Carlos had 43 performances in Paris after the première. The curiosity
of the audience prevailed. The opera was soon given in a number of countries in
different languages and versions but did not establish itself in the repertory
until the 1920s and 1930s. Only after the Second World War did Verdi’s
‘opera-poema’ became one of his best loved works. Its quest for freedom and
struggle against oppression are still a burning issue.
Don Carlos Review
Edited together from the three live performances, the Naxos se offers a
lively, incisive account of the five-act version of Don Carlos, with the Swedish
Opera’s Spanish music-director, Alberto Hold-Garrido, drawing out the
formidable talents of his company in a warmly idiomatic reading. It is the more
impressive that this is repertory performance without imported stars. Hillevi
Martinpelto, commanding as Elisabetta, and Peter Mattei, the powerful Rodrigo,
have both had great success outside Sweden, not least in disc, but the others in
the cast equally demonstrate the company’s tradition, ever since the days
of Jussi Björling and Birgit Nilssob, in encouraging singers with firm, clear
voices at a times when too many ill-focused wobblers are being accepted
elsewhere. Penguin Guide
