Giuseppe Verdi
Don Carlos
Wiener Staatsoper, 2004

Philip II King of Spain - Alastair Miles
Don Carlos Infante of Spain - Ramón Vargas
Rodrigo Marquis of Posa - Bo Skovhus
The Grand Inquisitor - Simon Yang
A monk - Dan Paul Dumitrescu
Elisabeth of Valois - Iano Tamar
Princess Eboli - Nadja Michael
Tybalt, page to Elisabeth - Cornelia Salje
Count of Lerma - Benedikt Kobel

Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper
BERTRAND DE BILLY


Bertrand de Billy

Stage Director
Peter Konwitschny




TDK presents the world première of the unabridged version of Don Carlos at the Vienna State Opera, in a staging by the world-renowned German director Peter Konwitschny. This staging in its unabridged version remains true to Giuseppe Verdi’s originally vision of his grand opera, when it was premiered in Paris in 1867. However, during the rehearsals it soon became clear that Don Carlos would not fit within the convention of duration, and Verdi was forced, against his will, to make cuts. Over the next 20 years, he would repeatedly turn out new versions of the opera, none of which ultimately left him satisfied. Therefore it was not until October 2004 that his original work – without cuts and sung in the original French - received its world première, now for the first time available for home viewing on DVD.

Led by French conductor Bertrand de Billy, who has appeared regularly at the Vienna Opera since 1997 and overseen several of its premières and revivals, the singers were hailed by audience and critics. The international cast were all renowned soloists on the world’s opera stages and also long-term stalwarts of the Vienna Opera: the Mexican Tenor Ramón Vargas in the title role, the Danish baritone Bo Skovhus as the Marquis de Posa, the Georgian soprano Iano Tamar as Elisabeth, the German-born mezzo Nadja Michael as Eboli, and English bass Alastair Miles, as Philip II.

As the curtain rises the Spanish infante Carlos, wandering in the forests of Fontainebleau, meets the French princess Elisabeth, designated to be his future bride in order to put an end to the war between Spain and France. The two fall instantaneously and utterly in love, and their private happiness seems assured.
Konwitschny’s production specially emphasizes the light-hearted joy of this almost childlike young couple, thereby making the depth of their fall in the ensuing disaster all the greater. For when the aged Philip II decides to marry Elisabeth himself, Carlos and Elisabeth’s happiness comes to an abrupt end and they become victims of political intrigue. Konwitschny and his set designer, Johannes Leiacker, express this in visual terms: the previously open stage suddenly collapses into a bare, tightly enclosed room symbolising the enmity of the prevailing powers toward life and love.


But the other protagonists likewise become victims as the opera progresses. The Marquis de Posa – a man capable of inspiring his downcast friend Carlos with the vision of a Flanders liberated from the Spanish yoke – is abandoned by his patron Philip II at the urgings of the all-powerful Inquisition and pays for his political idealism with his life. Philip II suffers from a feeling of isolation only intensified by Elisabeth’s lack of love, the estrangement from his son and his sense of guilt at the death of his only confidant, the Marquis de Posa. Princess Eboli, the king’s mistress, loves Carlos but is not loved in return; racked by fits of jealousy, she spreads slander about her supposed rival Elisabeth to Philip – and, in this production, is likewise treacherously murdered. Even the Grand Inquisitor is ultimately a prisoner of his own system of power.

The only apparent way out of this impossible situation is a dream: the obligatory ballet - that Verdi wrote for Act 3 and that was choreographed by Lucien Petipa for the première - is transformed in Konwitschny’s hands into a slapstick pantomime in which, under the title ’Eboli’s Dream’, the princess’ inmost desires are acted out by the main characters of the opera. In this dream she is married to Carlos and leads an orderly, petit bourgeois existence rounded off by a cosy visit from Philip and Elisabeth, now happily wed. The pantomime’s deliberate comedy is a ploy on Konwitschny’s part to cast a more glaring light on the tragedy of the opera’s true plot. Only at the very end is the air-tight room actually opened in a new way, namely, by having the allegedly deceased former emperor Charles V, now disguised as a mysterious monk, rescue the two lovers from the deadly clutches of the Inquisition. To Konwitschny, Charles V embodies the longing for something better, the proof that a power mightier than brute force exists.

Special significance attaches to the famous auto da fé, the burning of the victims of inquisition, scene in this production. The libretto treats it as a folk festival, thereby opening up the plot to embrace the general populace. Accordingly, Konwitschny removes the ’fourth wall’ separating the stage from the audience and – by staging it in the foyer of the opera house as the TV reportage from the annual Viennese society event, the Opernball - deliberately commingles reality and play and sets a mirror before the opera audience.

The Vienna State Opera’s world première of the unabridged version of Don Carlos was a great event in the house’s history, and Konwintschny staging, together with conducting by de Billy provided for an audiovisual jewel. The version of Don Carlos recorded on this DVD is the original version as intended to be performed in Paris in 1867 and provides a new perspective on a work that, even if it has never been able to achieve the popularity of operas such as La traviata, Rigoletto and Aida, forms an important part of Verdi’s oeuvre.
TDK now presents this production for home viewing on DVD accompanied by an extensive booklet with an informative text on the work’s history.