Opera production by Teatro Regio di Parma on the occasion of Festival Verdi.
For the series of operas from ‘Festival Verdi’, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura presents DON CARLO
DON CARLO-version of Modena 1886, conducted by Fabrizio Ventura, directed by Joseph Franconi Lee, FV 2012 (this one was performed and taped at the Teatro Comunale di Modena)
Teatro Comunale di Modena
DON CARLO
Parma’s Tutto Verdi presentation of Don Carlo was sent up the road to the Teatro Comunale di Modena. I suppose this was appropriate as this opera has more versions than a tenors has phobias. But one of them is called the Modena Version, which obviously was the one presented here. It’s the 5 act opera in Italian rather than the original French.
Don Carlo is one of opera’s most profound works. Its depth of characterization, its musical grandeur, and Verdi’s astounding combination of craft and inspiration make it the grandest of grand operas. Despite its flawed ending and the lack of a definitive version, it is a landmark of Western art. The scene in the king’s apartment by itself would move this opera to the forefront of opera’s pantheon. Parenthetically, its starts just before dawn and all the principal characters in the opera appear in it, save Don Carlo.
Modena’s opera house is relatively small and Don Carlo is very big. Stage director Joseph Franconi Lee and set designer Alessandro Ciammarughi solved the problem by adapting big to small using sparse, but suggestive, sets combined with effective backdrops. The stage never appeared overly crowded, yet even the grand auto-da-fe scene was successful because they let Verdi’s great score carry the staging.
The title role is perhaps opera’s most neurasthenic leading part. Carlo is temperamentally unsuited to run a reading group, much less the Spanish Empire at its height. It obvious that Verdi and his librettists didn’t know what to do with him so they invoked a deus ex machina to get him off stage and thus allow the opera to end. Mario Malagnini is a veteran Italian tenor who has sung at most of the peninsula’s major houses. He was 54 at the time of this recording. He has a bright and well formed spinto voice. His main problem here, and likely the reason his fine voice hasn’t taken him to international renown, is that he seems diffident and uninvolved with what’s happening onstage. Vocally, he was up to all of his role’s challenges.
Callia Costea’s portray of the French princess forced to a loveless marriage was vivid and sympathetic. The Romanian soprano’s voice is secure and well placed over its entire range.
Princess Eboli is one of Verdi’s three great roles for a mezzo.
Giacomo Prestia is a veteran Verdian. Filippo II is the greatest bass role in the Italian repertory. Prestia gave a vivid reading, aside from a tendency to wobble under vocal stress, of the aging monarch tormented by his declining vigor, his poor family situation, and the demands of an implacable church.
The Grand Inquisitor is a terrifying creature. His extended duet with the king is a miracle of invention. The confrontation is in Schiller’s play which is the basis for the libretto. The librettists wanted to omit it, but Verdi insisted on keeping it. A 10 minute duet for two basses? Only a genius could have made into a theatrical tour de force. Luciano Montanaro was tall, bald, and imposing as the nonagenarian fanatic who bends the king to his will.
Simone Piazzola’s portrayal of the idealistic Rodrigo was vocally brilliant. The young baritone has a supple and beautiful timbre ideal for Verdi’s great baritone parts. Here are Per me giunto è il dì supremo and Rodrigo’s Death Scene from Act 4 scene 2. Piazzola who has already sung at La Scala seems ready to reach to top of the Verdi baritone ladder.
All Verdi’s operas need a sensitive and forceful conductor, but no one more than Don Carlo. Fabrizio Ventura more than met Verdi’s demands. His orchestra played with beauty and power as the story unfolded. Ventura clearly understood what was required. A powerful reading of a demanding score.
Booklet of François-Joseph Méry and Camille Du Locle. Trad. by Achille de Lauzières, Angelo Zanardini.
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Universal Music Publishing Edition Ricordi srl, Milano
Personages and interpreters
Filippo II, King of Spain Giacomo Prestia
Don Carlo, Infante of Spain Mario Malagnini
Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa Simone Piazzola
Il Grande Inquisitor Luciano Montanaro
A Frate Paolo Buttol
Elisabeth of Valois Cellia Costea
The Princess Eboli Alla Pozniak
Tebaldo, by Elisabetta Irène Candelier
Il Conte di Lerma Giulio Pelligra
A royal leap Marco Gaspari
A voice from heaven Irène Candelier
Director Fabrizio Ventura
Regia Joseph Franconi Lee
Scene and costumes Alessandro Ciammarughi
Lights Nevio Cavina
Choreographed Marta Ferri movements
Teacher of the choir Stefano Colò
Assistant to the scene and costumes Fulvia Donatoni
Scenography by Rinaldo Rinaldi, Maria Grazia Cervetti, Keiko Shiraishi
Regional Orchestra of Emilia-Romagna
Coro Lirico Amadeus – Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Modena
Duration 204 minutes