This powerful 2010 production of DON CARLO features a strong cast for Verdi’s epic vision of the Spanish Inquisition. Ramón Vargas sings the title role, joined by Barbara Frittoli, Anna Smirnova, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Eric Halfvarson. Lorin Maazel conducts.
Verdi’s longest and most ambitious opera - a dark and intense epic of Spain at the height of the Inquisition - takes a profound look at the intersection of the personal and the political spheres. The personal issues at stake are large in themselves, including a pair of love triangles. Politically, there is a revolution (expressed both in terms of a province rebelling against its king and a son rebelling against his father) and the still-relevant question of the boundaries of church and state. The opera depicts these conflicts with a magnificent and haunting score that probes the full range of the lush Romantic vocabulary.
With its spiritual, emotional, and philosophical ambitions, Don Carlo is more demanding than some of Verdi’s more familiar works, but its qualities are uniquely rewarding. The composer reworked the score several times over a period of almost 20 years. The Met presents Don Carlo in its original five acts, sung in Italian. Saturday, March 9, *11 am to 4 pm. (*Note early start time)
More information about DON CARLO - the music, the creators, the setting, and its history at The Met
CAST:
Conductor: Lorin Maazel ?
Elisabeth de Valois: Barbara Frittoli ?
Eboli: Anna Smirnova ?
Don Carlo: Ramón Vargas ?
Rodrigo: Dmitri Hvorostovsky ?
Philip II: Ferruccio Furlanetto ?
Grand Inquisitor: Eric Halfvarson