Roberto Alagna, Jose van Dam, Thomas Hampson, Eric Halfvarson, Csaba Airizer, Anat Efraty, Antonio Pappano, Orchestre de Paris - Verdi: Don Carlos (complete opera); Alagna, Hampson, van Dam

Don Carlos exists in several versions, in French or Italian (Don Carlo, in five acts or four. This recording (five acts in French) uses the original version composed by Verdi for a premiere at the Paris Opera in 1867. It is longer than the 1883 revision (four acts in Italian), but longer means better when we talk about Verdi's music, and the French prologue gives a more concrete understanding of why Don Carlos loves his stepmother, Queen Elisabetta, with a more than filial affection. There are show-stopping arias and duets galore, a striking scene in which the Inquisition burns a group of Protestants, echoes of revolt in the Spanish Empire, and poignant reflections on lost love. It is an opera whose true greatness is not yet fully appreciated by many Verdi fans, but this eloquent recording should help remedy that. --Joe McLellan Amazon.com

Les affres de la modernité

Il y avait longtemps que l'on avait oublié en France que «Don Carlos» était un opéra français quand le Châtelet l'a repris en 1996. Malheureusement, ce fut avec peu de bonheur car le seul souci qui semble avoir été présent dans l'esprit de ceux qui l'ont monté a été de «moderniser» l'opéra ou pire encore de «faire moderne» (aussi paradoxal que cela puisse paraître, l'opéra n'a jamais été moderne et quand le XXe siècle s'en est mêlé, le genre a bien failli en mourir). Dans le cas de ce «Don Carlos» le résultat est donc navrant. On a d'abord droit à une mise en scène «grunge» qui trivialise l'opéra. Cela ne serait pas grave, car finalement, à part quelques photos, sur le disque on ne la voit pas, mais malheureusement elle imprègne les chanteurs qui se vautrent dans la caricature en perdant tout sens de la noblesse et de la grandeur. Le meilleur exemple est bien sûr Roberto Alagna qui chante donc comme il parle : on retrouve ainsi la clarté de sa diction mais aussi son côté «chanteur de pizzeria». La beauté solaire de son timbre est certes toujours là, mais complètement gâtée par des tics que l'on aurait qualifiés il y a quelques années de faubouriens. Les autres chanteurs sont mauvais à deux exceptions près : Van Dam en Philippe II garde ses appréciables qualités et Hampson en Rodrigue est excellent au point qu'il donne l'impression de porter l'opéra.
La version du Châtelet dure 3h20 mais, modernité oblige, le ballet a été supprimé. Quel contresens quand on sait la place fondamentale du ballet dans l'opéra français : plus que tout autre école d'opéra, l'opéra français est né du ballet. Supprimer le ballet sous prétexte que le public actuel n'apprécierait peut-être pas revient à énucléer «Don Carlos».
Bref, la seule bonne version de «Don Carlos» reste celle de Camden Theatre de 1972 avec André Turp retransmise par la BBC. August 30, 2007

An Essential Recording, if there ever was one

It has been tradition to perform Verdi's Don Carlo in its four-act Italian form, and when Carlo Maria Giulini reintroduced the first act of the score in Italian to the London public in 1958, the Italian five act version became an international success. Nineteen years later, in La Scala, Claudio Abbado presented a version that was completer than complete, and that is the version being used by the Met today (e.g. including an orchestral "overture" to the hunter scene that usually begins the opera). This 1996 recording, taped at the Theatre du Chatelet, is then a pioneer in a very narrow field that showcases Verdi's greatest ensemble opera in its original form. A decade or two earlier, Abbado had conducted a French version for Deutsche Grammophon with Domingo and a slew of other non-Francophones who were probably better off singing the Italian version of the work. Moreover, that version was incomplete. Another recording of the French version exists, recently released by Opera Rara in conjunction with the BBC archives, but the cast and conductor do not impress us is an opera where the emotional and musical language coalesces seamlessly in one of Verdi's finest music dramas.

There are many things that make this recording work so wonderfully, one aspect of which is Antonio Pappano's conducting. If there is a finer opera conductor today, someone should let me know since Pappano has excelled in nearly every single operatic work that he has tackled to date, and that includes Puccini, Verdi, Massenet, Strauss, and Wagner. His conducting does not only have the poetry that Giulini so famously imbued the work with. It also has a drive and a forward propulsion that keeps Verdi's longest work running smoothly in both the musical and drama departments. I have never heard a more idiomatic conductor in this work other than Abbado and Giulini. Kudos as well to the magnificent playing from the Theatre du Chatelet orchestra.

The other reason to get this set is for the magnificent cast assembled around the opera. If Roberto Alagna does not have the beautiful lyricism of Carreras' voice or the robust virility of Domingo's, he has a command of perfect French, excellent phrasing, and a surprisingly complete understanding of the character that makes his interpretation very appealing. One could wish that his top were as easy as the rest of his voice, but that is a minor complaint when you assess his performance as a whole. Karita Mattila is an absolutely alluring Elisabeth. It is a noble, beautiful, lyric, grand, reflective, and tragic interpretation of a role that sopranos like to turn into a mourning vehicle. I have never heard a more powerful and beautiful voice in this role (yes, that includes Caballe and Freni), and one must simply hear Mattila's top notes to hear what wonders she creates with this character. If the basic colour of her voice is not one that listeners would associate with a Verdian sound, then I would say that her voice is more kaleidoscopic than that. Thomas Hampson sings the role of the Marquise de Posa, and although there are several detractors to him singing Verdi, I can say that his French his excellent, that he is a sensitive singer to the text, and that he shows the true spirit of Posa through his singing. I would say that this is probably his best operatic performance to date. Jose Van Dam is perhaps the most noble and tragic Philippe along with Rene Pape, and one must hear his fourth act monologue and the "Lacrymosa" section during Rodrigue's death to truly hear what wonders this great bass baritone can do with this voice. It has a grace and grandeur to it that few basses, including Nicolai Ghiaurov and Raimondi, were able to capture totally in the role. Waltraud Meier may not have been fluent in the coloratura as some great mezzos like Bumbry, Simionato, Cossotto, and Verrett in the role of Eboli, but what she lacks in Italianate fluency she succeeds in dramatic intensity. Her "O don fatal" must be heard, and her plea with Elisabeth is one of her best moments in the opera. Erich Halfvarson is not the most memorable Inquisitor, but that is not a huge concern in a recording where everything works wonders, especially Karita Mattila's Elisabeth, Van Dam's Philippe, and Alagna's Carlos.

This is an essential recording for everyone who loves Verdi and opera. Bravo to EMI for releasing this landmark performance! June 29, 2007

Matilla and Meier

I bought this recording to hear Matilla and Meier. Neither disappoints. Matilla has a lyric and generously full sound that reminds me very much of Leontyne Price's voice on her recording of this aria. Meier is not Bumbry or any of the others, but she is still amazing in her own right and is worth it. To give respect where it is due, I'll say Alagna is very good, as is the rest of the cast. This is really a solid performance, but the two leading ladies have got it all. January 30, 2006

Great Performance, But Not Paris "Original"

There is no denying that this performance is well sung, with better French diction than the Abbado, and that it is effective as drama. But bear66 below is the only reviewer here that gets it right -- this is a composite, NOT the original 1867 version, and the fact that it has been promoted as such is frankly false advertising.

The Prelude and Introduction, cut prior to 1867 is not included. Fair enough. But then in Act II, Posa's account to Carlos of his visit to Flanders is included: Verdi also cut this before the 1867 premiere. The Posa-Philip duet jumps to the 1884 version at the 2/3 mark. The mask changing scene between Elizabeth and Eboli is included, but the ballet is not, strictly contrary to Verdi's expressed intentions. A fragment only of the Elizabeth/Eboli duet, another number cut prior to 1867, is included -- there is no authority that I know of for its inclusion in this form. The "Lacrymosa" ensemble was also cut prior to 1867. The "marziale" section from the final duet is cut, something that was not instituted until the 1872 Naples revision, never for Paris. The ending is also not the Paris version which included a chorus of Inquisitors who try and convict Carlos.

So what do we have? It is not 1867, nor is it the version Verdi completed in 1866 prior to the cuts. It starts as 1867, then reverts to 1866, then jumps ahead to 1884, then back to 1867, further back to 1866, then ahead to 1872 and finally 1884. There are significantly, no liner notes detailing this other than a vague references to "choices" having been made.

The performance is still worth having, particularly since it contains passages not available elsewhere. I simply object to the dishonest way in which this has been presented to the public, particularly those who are less familiar with the history of the opera and take the "Original French Version" claim at face value. April 8, 2004

Quite Excellent

This recording is the only one that is recent at all of the French original of this work. Most reviewers have written extensively about this fact. The only thing we are lacking is the original ending (which I believe was cut even before the first performance, but was recorded in the Domingo recording of the French version of the opera; the Lacrimosa from the Reguiem is well served in its original setting). Since this is a live recording, there are some flaws. There are pitch problems, and the sound is rather distant, which in my view takes from the excitement that the audience most likely felt while watching the performance. I also feel that is one reason the conducting and the orchestral reading seem less involved, less alive, than it sounds in either of the Italian Studio versions, or in the full first French recording of the work with Domingo. This truly is an exciting score, and a great opera. It, however, is NOT Verdi's only French opera. His other famous failure in Paris was "Les Vepres Siciliennes." Unlike Don Carlos, "I Vespri Siciliani", as we have come to know the work, was never rewritten, nor did Verdi ever prepare an Italian version of the work. It was simply translated when brought to Italy. Though people think of it as an Italian opera, it too is every bit as French as Don Carlos was, even more so, for it was never officially rewritten to be an Italian opera.

Don Carlo, though, went through extensive changes, some were for the better tightening the action and the musical thoughts; others were not an improvement at all. The Five Act version recorded by Guilini is an Italian version created by Verdi where he replaced the first act, but retained his changes in the other acts that he had written when creating the four act version. In this recording, as with the French version sung by Domingo, we are witnessing the original thoughts on the matter. The differences, excepting the obvious number of acts, are subtle, but noticeable.

The singers do a wonderful job in this recording, and as with all live performances, there are warts. Sometimes the singers are not true to the center of the note, and sometimes they don't carry as well as they should (the grand inquisitor for one, his very low F below the cleff is not that well produced, but it is very audible; with our dirth of true basses these days, it is a wonder they found anyone who could sing the note at all). Yet, over all, it is a stunning representation of the work. If only, like one reviewer mentioned, this recording would be recorded in the studio so we could really experience the entire concept of the work. Singing is important to Verdi, but so is orchestra, and that is the area that most suffers in live recordings. The orchestra is seldom balanced as well as we would hope.

I rated the recording a five star because it is worth it. It is a wonderful recording, and a super exceptional representation of a great opera by a great compose. Too often Don Carlos, especially the original French version, has been dismissed as "a failure", "ineffective", and all those sorts of terms, when in reality, even though the ending of the opera is dramatically weak, it is nothing of the sort. It is a very vital, exciting work, and the orginal concept Verdi created is in many ways far superior to what he did with it later. I would recommend it to anyone, and everyone, who loves good opera. February 16, 2004

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