Verdi's grand opera—set against a backdrop of rebellion and inquisitorial cruelty—centers on the titular Spanish prince, who falls afoul of his father Philip II after the king marries Elisabeth, whom Carlo loves. Don Carlo went through a bewildering array of permutations between its Paris premiere in 1867 and the composer's final five-act Italian version of 1886. This 2016 production from the Verdi Festival in Parma offers the intervening four-act Italian version, minus the opening Fontainebleau scene. The performance is good but not great, with Daniel Oren leading the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in a reading that is comparatively restrained but generates considerable cumulative power. José Bros's tenor is not ideally heroic for Carlo, nor does Michele Pertusi's bass have the dark heft that the role of Philip demands, but both use their limited instruments intelligently, as does Serena Farnocchia (Elisabeth), whose relatively light soprano lacks the ultimate degree of Verdian warmth. And baritone Vladimir Stoyanov sounds noble as Carlo's loyal friend Rodrigo. The sets are fairly pedestrian, although the somber costumes suit the narrative's tragic tone. And while the auto-da-fé sequence is decently depicted—with a procession of red-robed priests and a crowd of tortured souls pushing carts full of fellow victims across the stage—Ievgen Orlov's Grand Inquisitor fails to convey the requisite degree of religious mania. Ultimately, this Parma mounting is only a decent staging of one of Verdi's greatest operas. Presented in DTS-HD 5.1 and PCM stereo, this is a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)
Don Carlo
(2016) 182 min. In Italian w/English subtitles. Blu-ray: $39.99. Dynamic (dist. by Naxos of America). Volume 32, Issue 6
Don Carlo
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