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Great Vitality
Verdi's 'Don Carlo',
heard by ROBERT HUGILL
To understand Verdi's Don Carlo / Don Carlos you have to go back to the work's genesis in the 1860s when Verdi was asked to write a piece for the Opera in Paris. Standard fare at the Opera was still Meyebeerian grand opera, in five acts with a ballet and a plot in which public duty (and stage spectacle) clashed with private passions. Ironically, the two operas from this genre which survive in the repertoire are Rossini's Guillaume Tell and Verdi's Don Carlos, both by Italian composers. Even before the premiere in 1867, Verdi's opera was on a huge and leisurely scale and had to be cut. The music from these cuts survived and it is possible to hear the complete French version from 1867...
Copyright © 17 November 2010
Robert Hugill,
London UK
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