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The Stage, 16 September 2009 |
George Hall |
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Don Carlo
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Photo: Catherine Ashmore |
Nicholas
Hytner’s traditional production of Verdi’s grandest opera returns, generally
looking good in Bob Crowley’s designs, with their effective period costumes.
The auto-da-fe scene, with fanatical priests and jubilant crowds cheering on
the burning of heretics, remains mixed, with some additional spoken lines a
directorial intervention too far. But some top-class singing keeps the long
and ambitious score in the air for much of the evening. The familiar Italian
translation of the French original is used.
New is Jonas Kaufmann’s lyrical Don Carlos, who rises impressively to the
heftier moments and maintains a genuine commitment to the drama.
American mezzo Marianne Cornetti hits the spot as a potent Princess Eboli
and John Tomlinson is a tower of strength as the Grand Inquisitor. Much of
the rest is as before, though sometimes improved. Ferruccio Furlanetto
remains a rock-solid King Philip, with much of the complexity of the
vulnerable tyrant on display. Marina Poplavskaya has acquired greater
consistency as Elisabeth, her drawn face and sculpted vocal lines expressing
the character’s stoical sense of loss. Robert Lloyd’s appearances as the
supposedly dead Charles V are properly momentous.
In two elements, the performance could scarcely be improved. One is the
superbly sung Posa of Simon Keenlyside, who leaves no corner of his
character unrevealed. The other is Semyon Bychkov’s conducting, which brings
out the unutterable dignity and pathos of the extraordinary score. |
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