In this version, Rodrigo is mysteriously dispatched by gunshot (Inquisitor’s secret police we must surmise). In an improbable bit of staging, Carlo draws a sword on his own father only to relinquish his weapon easily to Rodrigo, who is instantly elevated to Duke while Carlo is condemned.
Eboli confesses she herself has been in a secret affair with the King. The chaste Queen has to bid farewell to another lady-in-waiting when the King flies off his handle. Princess Eboli, in love with Carlo, in jealousy plots against him and the Queen. The plot is complicated, at times even fustian. Unlike MDLO’s triumph earlier this season with Turandot, which freed Puccini’s opera from any production distractions and was nonetheless able to deliver the story, the difficult plot of Don Carlo made the twists and turns confusing, as I heard in the intermission, except to the most experienced of Verdi lovers. Baritone SeungHyeon Baek as Frate beneath a projection by Sarah Tundermann in ‘Don Carlo.’ Photo by Julian Thomas Photography. Maestro Salemno chose the Milan four-act Italian version, the final one that Verdi had his hands on and approved, and still it comes in at a long three hours and 20 minutes.
The opera has been hacked, restored, and put into so many versions, that at its heftiest it clocks in at over four hours.
Giuseppe Verdi composed the opera first in French to a libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle based on the German Schiller’s political drama set in Spain’s 16th century when the prince of Asturias had to step aside, foregoing his betrothal to Elisabeth of Valois (Elisabetta), to satisfy Hapsburg-Valois relations and the preferred strategic marriage between the woman and his father, King Phillip II. And this was one of several complications.
The music was impressive, though at times it created such a wall of sound it masked the accomplished singers. Conductor Louis Salemno led an orchestra of 72 players plus a brass band of 20 and nearly 80 chorus members in the sonorous Strathmore Hall. Don Carlo came to us in concert version this past weekend produced by Maryland Lyric Opera, and the sheer heft of forces gathered might have launched an armada.
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