Part III of Covent Garden Season: Don Carlos – o don fatale, o don crudel
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Don Carlos. G Verdi  after F. Schiller

 

 doncarlos3Don Carlo ( when performed in Italian) Royal Opera House Covent Garden 25th May 2013

Production by Nicholas Hytner (revival), conducted by Antonio Pappano with Roberto Aronica (Don Carlo), Lianna Haroutounian (Elisabetta), Mariusz Kwiecien (Rodrigo, Marquis de Posa), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Philip II), Beatrice Uria-Monzon (Eboli), Eric Halfvorson (Grand Inquisitor).

Nicholas Hytner’s production of Verdi’s Don Carlo is a dark take on an opera which in its four and a half hours sweeps majestically over the shaping forces of all human life – love and power. I missed Jonas Kaufman’s account of Don Carlos and Anja Herteros had already long withdrawn from Elizabeth de Valois. From what I read Madame Herteros has quite a reputation for cancellations these days.

This was the revised five act Italian version of the opera – which has more extant versions of any from the Verdi canon. Many think it is Verdi’s greatest work –  but  this game of ordering works of art is invidious for all sorts of reasons – a bit like choosing a favourite play by Shakespeare.The production itself has its moments though Act I in the Forest at Fontainebleau stutters a little visually. I loved the Act II in St Juste with an enormous sarcophagus to Charles V. The Queen of Spain’s garden wasn’t terribly garden-like, nor Moorish for that matter.  The chamber of Philip II in Act IV did not feel quite right either. But it was all monumental; beautifully lit and the auto da fe was better staged and presented than I’ve ever seen it.

Much popular interest centred around Roberto Aronica as the Infante Don Carlo and Lianna Haroutounian as his fiancée-turned-stepmother, Elisabetta di Valois. The Armenian soprano is based in France. Her debut here has been spectacular. She owns a grand spinto soprano voice that’s full throated in the upper end of her considerable vocal range. In the opening Fontainebleau act her cries of ‘Oh ciel!’ in duet with Don Carlo immediately revealed the powerful instrument as her B naturals filled the auditorium. Haroutounian touchingly portrayed her heroine’s progress from naive fairytale princess of Act I to the disillusioned realist whose employs regal hauteur to keep a safe distance from the intrigues in the Spanish court. She imbued wistful dignity to her ‘Non pianger, mia compagna’ after her husband has humiliated her before the court by dismissing the queen’s French gentlewoman the Countess d’Aremberg from the Spain. At the opening of Act V Elizabeth is given one of Verdi’s greatest arias which taxes any soprano.Haroutounian gave us a fine, uncluttered rendition of ‘Tu che le vanità’. There are weaknesses is her lower register but she is a Verdi soprano without doubt and potentially a great one. I think she deserves to make Covent Garden her home after all next season there is the role of Elena in I vespri siciliani. It is in in her repertoire…

doncarlos2Roberto Aronica owns a big tenor sound but as so often with large tenors it’s a wild unhinged instrument. That said he sang well with Mariusz Kwiecien –  the Rodrigo to end all Rodrigo’s. In the reprise of the famous “friendship” duet which is both characters’ leitmotif Pappano successfully encouraged the two men almost to croon at one another. The result was spine tingling. For the rest Aronica’s was a workmanlike Carlo that did not always work that well.Of  Mariusz Kwiecien the opposite was true. For all Kwiecien lacks obvious Italianate warmth he still gave the best Rodrigo, Marquis de Posa I’ve ever heard at Covent Garden. His voice perfectly suited the arc of the Verdian line. His vocal attack had dramatic bite. Yet if it is a big voice but he can sing less less dramatically with genuinely restrained legato. He delivered a magnificent ‘Per me giunto’ and death scene in Act IV. His ballad ‘Carlo ch’è sol il nostro amore’ in the monastery garden scene was both sweet and noble. Above all there was an understated ambivalence to his heroics that made him more believable and actually more lovable as a character. Too often Posa is the cold Revolutionary manque whereas Schiller’s original casts an amoral politique adventurer tinged with heroic virtue. This is a Posa we would wish ourselves to be and with a little courage might indeed find it in ourselves to be.

Don Carlos is a quintet of conflicting personalities and ambitions pitched into a singular political moment. Of these five cast into the storm it is the least important who makes the most weather.  It’s the realisation of the Princess Eboli that she is the square on the hypotenuse of a lovers’ triangle between the Queen; Don Carlos and King Philip that propels a greater tragedy.  Eboli is one of Verdi’s truly significant dramatic creations. He bestows upon the mezzo soprano in Don Carlos two of the most remarkable pieces in repertory: the Veil Song and ‘O don fatale’. Indeed the latter is much less aria and much more scena. It closes Act IV –  an act which of itself is one of the most extraordinary and sustained pieces of musical composition ever essayed.

In most cases mezzos suited to say sing of Amneris or Azucena cannot negotiate the Veil Song whereas lighter-voiced singers who suit the arabesques of the Veil Song often lack firepower for Eboli’s Act IV aria, o don fatale. French mezzo Béatrice Uria-Monzon was not ideally suited to the demands of either ends of this role. Her account of the Veil Song was delightful in a way but it hardly did justice to the Veil Song’s Moorish arabesques. Dramatically she was  more comfortable in the fourth act and was superb in the great quartet but if her ‘O don fatale’ was incisive in attack and imbued with drama it lacked the knockout blow which this show-stopper needs if it’s properly to run down the curtain on Act IV.

doncarlos1Ferruccio Furlanetto was was superb Philip II and despite a voice that is unsuited to some of the vast demands made by Verdi,  Furlanetto gave the best performance of the night – full of pathos, anger, vanity and empty hopelessness. He catches something of the soul of history’s most famous administrator-king. From the moment he makes his entrance and spitefully dismisses the queen’s body servant, the Countess d’Aremberg, this Philip dominates business on stage, even when he has nothing to sing. And when he does sing… ‘Ella giammai m’amò’ was remarkably delivered –  Furlanetto stretches the vocal lines imbuing each word with deep meaning. His performance deservedly drew the loudest applause of the evening.

If Philip is the centre of gravity in Don Carlos all turns on his weaknesses of character. It is Philip’s flawed relationships with his new wife; with his son; with his mistress Princess Eboli; with the new politics represented by Posa and with the old politics represented by the Grand Inquisitor that are really explored in the opera.  Verdi’s Philip is a man who has inherited immense power but is entirely lacking the vision to use it. It is intentionally ironic that the greatest moment of the opera and the play come in the king’s confrontation with the blind Grand Inquisitor who unlike the king still clearly sees how to apply the power that Philip shrinks from using.  Philip is riddled with insecurities at which the zealous Inquisitor pokes.  Furlanetto’s agonised uncertain Philip was confronted by Eric Halfvarson’s certain, imperious Grand Inquisitor. Halvarson has a fine voice but he gave us more of a stunning dramatic portrayal than simply a sung performance. This scene is the still cold heart of the opera. Operatically, things don’t come better than Acts IV and V of Don Carlos.

Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera Orchestra were on electrifying form, urgently dramatic when required, poetic and eloquent in the more introspective music, such as the searching cello solo before Philip’s great monologue. The Royal Opera Chorus gave it their all in the auto-da-fè. This remains the most problematic moment of the opera. The spoken role of the Priest Inquisitor interpolated into the action by Hytner I thought worked better than anything I’ve previously seen on stage. I’m never really convinced by the angel’s voice welcoming the souls into heaven and from the subsequent action it appears none of the protagonists are much moved by it either. That said it was given with conviction. Personally I’d have re-claimed more of the stage reserved for a show of flames –  which really was wasted on the fire that rather fizzled out.

I’ve lavished love and time on this review in part because I love this opera and in part because it is such a good production. If anyone really wants to know what Grand Opera is all about, forget Aida or il Trovatore or Rigoletto and get yourself a good seat at Don Carlos. It’s a work of musical genius drawn from Schiller’s play of equal genius: it will never be equalled or surpassed.

 

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