GIUSEPPE VERDI
DON CARLO
CONTENTS
P.
5
SYNOPSIS P.
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A WONDERFUL CRESCENDO OVER FOUR ACTS PHILIPPE JORDAN P.
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THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL GRAND OPÉRAS URSULA GÜNTHER
P.
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DON CARLOS, OR THE ILLUSIONS OF CHIAROSCURO RENÉ LEIBOWITZ P.
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WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN? KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV P.
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IMPRINT
GIUSEPPE VERDI
DON CARLO OPERA in four acts Text CAMILLE DU LOCLE, ACHILLE DE LAUZIÈRES-THÉMINES and ANGELO ZANARDINI by FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
ORCHESTRA 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo) 2 oboes (2nd doubling english horn) 2 clarinets 4 bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon) 4 horns / 2 trumpets 2 cornets á piston / 3 trombones ophicleide / timpani bass drum / cymbal triangle / tamtam bells in F sharp and E flat harp / strings STAGE MUSIC banda / organ / harp
AUTOGRAPH Ricordi archives WORLD PREMIÈRE 10 JANUARY 1884 Teatro alla Scala, Milan PREMIÈRE AT THE HOUSE ON THE RING 10 MAY 1932 DURATION
3 H 30 M
INCL. 1 INTERMISSION
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DON CARLO
SYNOPSIS ACT 1 SCENE 1 Don Carlo, heir to the Spanish throne, is in love with Elisabetta of Valois, the third wife of his father Filippo II, who himself married the French princess once promised to Carlo. In the monastery of Saint-Just, at the grave of his grandfather Carlo V, Carlo believes he recognises his grandfather’s ghost in one of the monks. Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa, urges Carlo to intervene politically in Flanders. Carlo confesses his unhappy love to his friend. For Posa, Carlo’s untenable situation is one more reason to leave Spain to fight for freedom in Flanders.
SCENE 2 Princess Eboli sings the Song of the Veil. Posa gives Elisabetta a letter from Carlo in which he asks for a meeting. Princess Eboli misunderstands Posa’s hints and believes that Carlo’s suppressed love is for her. Elisabetta receives Carlo, who initially asks her to support his plan to go to Flanders; but Carlo can soon no longer control his feelings for Elisabetta. Filippo appears and finds Elisabetta unaccompanied. As punishment for this violation of court ceremony, he sends Elisabetta’s closest confidante, the Countess of Aremberg, back to France. Filippo invites Posa to a confidential meeting. Posa uses this favour to bemoan the conditions in Flanders and demand freedom for the oppressed people. Filippo is impressed by Posa’s openness, but rejects his demands and warns advises him to beware of the Grand Inquisitor. Finally, he asks Posa to watch Elisabetta and Carlo because he suspects that they are in a relationship.
Previous pages: ASMIK GRIGORIAN as ELISABETTA JOSHUA GUERRERO as DON CARLO SUPERNUMERARY JOSHUA GUERRERO as DON CARLO SUPERNUMERARY
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SYNOPSIS
ACT 2 SCENE 1 Carlo has received an anonymous invitation to a night-time rendezvous, which he believes comes from Elisa betta. However, not Elisabetta but Princess Eboli appears. She too realises the misunderstanding, and that Carlo loves the queen, not her. Posa intervenes but is unable to dispel Eboli’s dangerous suspicions. Posa urges Carlo to hand over all documents that could indicate collaboration with the rebellion in Flanders. SCENE 2 During a festive auto-da-fé, Carlo confronts the king, together with deputies from Flanders and asks for freedom for the country and for political responsibility for the provinces to be transferred to him. When Filippo refuses and Carlo raises his weapon against Filippo, no one defends him – until Posa, to everyone’s astonishment, intervenes and has Carlo arrested. The burning of the heretics can begin.
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ACT 3 SCENE 1 Filippo is tormented by the thought that Elisabetta never loved him. He asks the Grand Inquisitor to come to him to discuss his son’s future. The Grand Inquisitor assures Filippo he will be granted absolution for killing Carlo, but in return demands that Posa be handed over to the Inquisition. Elisabetta complains to Filippo that some of her personal items have been stolen. Filippo, to whom these items were given by Princess Eboli – including a picture of Carlo – accuses Elisabetta of adultery; the situation escalates. Princess Eboli confesses the theft to Elisabetta and also reveals that she is Filippo’s lover. Elisabetta gives her the choice between exile and entering a monastery. SCENE 2 Posa visits Carlo in prison and reports that he has averted suspicion of collaboration with Flanders from Carlo and brought it upon himself. Posa is shot from behind. Filippo wants to rehabilitate his son, but he refuses. Led by Princess Eboli, the people storm the prison to free Carlo, but the dreaded Grand Inquisitor thwarts the uprising with his appearance.
ACT 4 Carlo and Elisabetta bid farewell to each other. However, before Carlo can set off on the journey to Flanders to realise Posa’s political legacy, both are surprised by Filippo and the Inquisition Court. When the Grand Inquisitor orders Carlo to be arrested, Carlo’s grandfather Carlo V appears and draws him into his tomb with him.
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“POSA IS AN ANACHRONISM BECAUSE HE PROCLAIMS THE IDEA OF HUMANITY IN THE MOST MODERN SENSE – AND THAT IN THE REIGN OF PHILIPP II. IF PHILIPP HAD MET A SIMILAR PERSONALITY, HE WOULD HAVE BROKEN IT INSTEAD OF ADVISING PEOPLE TO BEWARE OF THEIR INQUISITOR. IN ADDITION, PHILIPP, ALTHOUGH A TYRANT, ACTED IN GOOD FAITH AND LED AN EXTREMELY AUSTERE LIFE.”
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PHILIPPE JORDAN
A WONDERFUL CRESCENDO OVER FOUR ACTS Although Don Carlo is not part of the “trilogia popolare”, i.e. the three “hits” Rigoletto, Traviata, Trovatore, this Verdi opera – and in particular the Italian version from 1884 – is also greatly loved by much of its audience. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, what we have here is an incredibly strong subject – Friedrich Schiller was a brilliant playwright and his Don Karlos, the most important model for this opera, inevitably inspired Verdi to compose some of his best music. Secondly, with the Italian version we come to an older Verdi, the Verdi of Aida and the Requiem. The score therefore not only offers wonderful melodies and a sense of drama, but also compositional maturity that finds expression in unexpected sophistication of harmony and instrumentation. It was this sophistication that enabled Verdi to develop masterful descriptions of ambience and character portraits. This is true from the first notes of the opera on. For example, how does Verdi create the darkness of the monastery at the very beginning? First of all, the sound of four horns playing in unison, which open the opera with Previous page: ÉTIENNE DUPUIS as POSA
an extensive, slow, somewhat wistful and at the same time sacred melody, conveying solemn, but almost resigned and calm dignity in F sharp minor – a key that inherently emanates a dark and shadowy impression. This is reinforced by the following monks’ chorale, which sounds as if coming from afar, as well as the tension created by the constant switching between major and minor that runs through this opening section. Incidentally, this is a device that Gustav Mahler would also later employ. At all events, the mood seems to oscillate constantly between feelings of hope and despair. By contrast, how differently Verdi creates the impression of gloom in the third act, in the prison where Carlo is incarcerated and where he meets Posa for the last time. The repeated musical figures in the short prelude in the strings and the plaintive oboe solo – a reminder of the same motif in the recitative before Carlo’s aria – reflect the prisoner’s brooding and apprehensive mood, and the largely unaccompanied recitative by Carlo and Posa reinforces the feeling of oppressive silence.
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A WONDERFUL CRESCENDO OVER FOUR ACTS
Even in Posa’s aria that follows, Verdi uses sparse orchestration to preserve the mood. Philipp’s loneliness expressed in his aria at the beginning of the third act is conveyed by the solo cello which introduces and accompanies the melody. We find a very different scenario in the garden scene in the first act, specifically in Eboli’s Song of the Veil. The semitone coloratura in the cadenza, the repeated switching between major and Mixolydian church mode combined with a striking rhythm in 6/8 – which we incidentally also find in the interlude to the last act of Carmen – inevitably evoke the intended impression of a SpanishArabian garden setting. As one last final example, I would mention the appearance of the Grand Inquisitor in the third act. Unlike Mozart, who does not condemn any of his characters, with his dogmatic-sounding entrance music Verdi portrays the Grand Inquisitor as a threatening, icecold, merciless power politician who will stop at nothing: a preponderance of deep, dark instruments acoustically illustrating the laborious gait and limp of this unpleasant old man with a dotted rhythm. It could scarcely be any darker. Of course, all of this was not a coincidence, but the result of a gradual development. While the young Verdi wrote his operas in the spirit of the bel canto tradition where the focus was primarily on the singing, greater importance was attached to the orchestra from Rigoletto on. The simple “orchestral guitar” with relatively basic accompanying figures became a key contributor to and commentator on the action, requiring correspondingly greater density and colour in the instrumentation. Through his fruitful involvement with French grand opéra in Paris as the musi-
cal capital of the day – initially with Les vêpres siciliennes in 1855 and later with the French Don Carlos of 1867 – Verdi successfully further consolidated his compositional style. Not only did he expand the structure and dimension of the individual components of the opera and add detail and refinement to the psychological portrayal of the characters, but he also added richness and variety to the orchestration with doubling of instruments and the addition of several instruments seldom used in Italy. For example, while Verdi assigned nothing more than a solo double bass and a solo cello (in F major) to accompany the professional killer Sparafucile in his first conversation with Rigoletto, in his duet with King Philipp the Grand Inquisitor has not only has the entire double bass and cello section, but also a bassoon, contra-bassoon, trombones, timpani, bass drum and a bass clarinet – and all in a dramatically threatening F minor key. Overall, Verdi seems to have rediscovered minor keys in Don Carlos. In his earlier works, he often wrote even dramatic and tragic scenes in a major key – we need think only of Macbeth’s final aria. Here in Don Carlos, it is quite astonishing how much of Carlos’ and Elisabetta’s music in particular is in a minor key. Another typical result of Verdi’s experience in Paris is the great auto-da-fé, in which a mass execution is staged as a huge, propaganda spectacle. Such enormous, opulent scenes with numerous soloists, chorus and extras, a large orchestra and, in this case, also a banda, i.e. onstage instrumental ensemble, were obligatory for grand opéra; in Verdi’s case, this understandably led to superb writing and music drama.
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By way of one final example, another interesting aspect that would be unthinkable in Verdi’s early and middle operas: apart from one short aria, the title character appears only in ensembles. I find this distinctive of more developed musical dramaturgy. We have a young man, a desperate lover, who is nominally considered heir to the throne, but who is completely insignificant in the larger context of politics and religion, without any power, without any influence. His character is essentially irrelevant, his tragedy is of a completely private nature, he is only ever portrayed in the context of others. He is used, ignored, manoeuvred into situations he is not capable of dealing with. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, he is in a certain way the centre around which everything revolves. It is therefore very fitting that the work is named for him, and yet he only gets one challenging tenor aria early on in the opera, an aria that defines him. It is in this very aria that the music makes it clear from the outset that he never has and will never be in control. Another aria is unnecessary; his hopeless, lamentable situation is understood, and this is confirmed time and again in the course of the action. In the French Don Carlos, Verdi grows from his middle style into a grand opéra style that presages the mature Verdi. However, here he is still clearly French-formalist, as the requirements and customs of grand opéra at the time required. Not least in the opening Fontainebleau act, when Don Carlos and Elisabetta first meet, we hear numerous dotted notes, double dotted notes trills, often in 4/4 time and/or march-like, but all extremely elegantly drawn. In short: a conscious emphasis on court ceremonial.
And what distinguishes the French Don Carlos from the Italian Don Carlo? We see this in the main duet between Posa and Philipp, which is about nothing less than freedom of thought. In the French version, at this point we witness a very intellectual conversation, whereas in the Italian version – particularly when Posa reports on the terrible situation in Flanders – we hear drama à la Otello, full of chromaticism, unusual harmonies and counterpoint in the orchestra. In Don Carlos, the French libretto adds greater depth and seems less operatic than abstractly cool as in a play. In Don Carlo, with its more musical and emotional Italian language, we experience much greater intensity, unrestricted by ceremony. Everything is more compact, tighter, more effective, more experimental – Verdi’s experience with Forza del destino and Aida already provides a firm foundation in this score. At all events, I have a particular fondness for the four-act version that was first performed in Milan. The French première version is certainly more consistent and logical – in the middle of the more mature Italian Don Carlo we run into several prominent relics of the original version, which, wonderful though they may be, do not truly fit in the new overall scheme. For example, Elisabetta’s aria in the last act, which is designed like a monumental triptych. And also the many numbers in 4/4 time which do not begin on the first beat, but unusually as an upbeat melody on the third beat. Examples would be Carlo’s aria at the beginning “Io la vidi”, Posa’s “Per me giunto” and essentially also Philipp’s “Ah, si maledetto”, all of which are probably left over from the original version, since in French the word emphasis is often on the final syllable.
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A WONDERFUL CRESCENDO OVER FOUR ACTS
Nevertheless, the dramaturgy of the Italian Don Carlo seems more balanced, especially in the four-act version, which does not begin in the forest of Fontainebleau but in the monastery. Firstly, this creates a more beautiful arc from the beginning to the end of the opera, which also takes place in the monastery, and secondly, the impressive
auto-da-fé and the scene with the Grand Inquisitor is moved to the centre of the action, making the structure more even. We experience a wonderful crescendo from the first act to the highly dramatic finale, in which the atmospheric common theme of longing for death can be experienced even more clearly.
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THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL GRAND OPÉRAS Don Carlos, composed for the World Exposition of 1867, is in many respects an unusual work, possibly Verdi’s greatest and certainly his most ambitious, since he wanted to score the triumph in Paris which he missed with Jérusalem (1847), Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855) and the revised Macbeth (1865). Don Carlos exceeds all other Verdi operas in the complexity of its action, the amount of music composed for it (about as much as Trovatore and Traviata together) and the wealth of the materials that remain: an autograph from 1867 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale), two partial autographs from 1872 and 1883 (Archivio Storico Ricordi, Milan), working libretti in various stages and letters from the composer’s estate (Sant’ Agata), documents and letters from the Paris Archives nationales and the Opéra, which also owns the copy of the autograph (with the final changes), drafts for the ballet, an incomplete scene for the title figure and the material for chorus, orchestra, soloists, conductor and ballet master for the world première (11 March, 1867). DMITRY ULYANOV as GRANDE INQUISITORE
All this makes it possible to follow the changes and cuts during the Paris rehearsal period from 1866/67, together with the change to the Philipp-Posa duet in 1872 (set to an Italian text for Naples) and the fundamental major revision in 1882/83, in which the first act was cut and long sections of acts 2-5 newly composed. The action, based primarily on Schiller’s 1805 dramatic poem Don Carlos, is more complex than usual for Verdi. It presents the whole range of human feelings and passions, from the most sublime to the basest in a historical context, so that the most intimate human emotions and problems are linked tightly with timeless political and religious ambitions. Verdi undoubtedly wanted to put Meyerbeer’s grand opéras in the shade with Don Carlos. However, he also exceeded their length, resulting in organisational complications which initiated deep and overhasty cuts, even before the première and then shortly after it. So that the audience could catch the last train to the Paris suburbs, Verdi
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had to cut 20 minutes of music directly before the world première. This cut primarily affected the original opening of the opera, a musically impressive scene which showed the audience the political and psychological background to the later conflict, making them understand why, despite her love for Don Carlos, Elisabeth agreed to marry his father Philipp for the sake of peace. In terms of box office receipts, Don Carlos lagged far behind Meyerbeer’s triumphs. There had been 270 re hearsals in eight months, but despite this – or because of it – they had only arrived at a production which Verdi himself described as “senza sangue ed agghiacciata” – “bloodless and ice cold.” After another eight months and 43 mechanical performances, it vanished from the Opéra’s repertory for almost a century, only to return finally in an Italian translation. The reason why the French origins of the work were forgotten was primarily the resounding success which the conductor had with it in Bologna (on 27 October 1867) after a month of rehearsals. However, there were only a few stages in Italy large enough for Don Carlos. The clear anticlericalism of the piece was another obstacle to its spread. In 1868, for example, it was performed in Rome with all the allusions to the Inquisition removed. The chorus of monks leading the heretics condemned by the Inquisition to the stake was turned into a “coro di nobili” (chorus of nobles), and the Grand Inquisitor became “Il Gran Cancelliere” (the grand chancellor). Looking back over more than a century, it has long been clear that Don Carlos was the most internationally successful of all the grand opéras composed for Paris. At the time, peo-
ple in Paris thought differently, clearly because Verdi’s style had progressed so far from that of his contemporaries that even good musicians were unable to understand it. Bizet, for example, wrote, “I’m exhausted, crushed. Verdi’s no longer Italian, he wants to behave like Wagner … He no longer has his faults, but neither does he have a single one of his qualities. He wants to write in an [ambitious] style but only achieves pretension. It’s a piece to avoid – a total disaster … The audience in particular is furious! The performers might forgive him an unsuccessful attempt which ultimately is to the credit of his taste and artistic integrity. But the audience came to be entertained…” For us today, it is almost unbelievable that many reviews in 1867 talk about Wagnerian or German influence. Even Alexis Azevedo, who was in raptures over Ernani and Trovatore, complained in L’Opinion Nationale: “A deadly north wind has blown over these Italian flowers. A German fog has come to surround them, and after surrounding them, withered their glowing colours and crippled their once so clear and solid forms. The vague and icy recitative has stolen the place of the lively and warm melodies almost everywhere.” Only Theophile Gautier defended Verdi’s “quasi-conversion” against all attacks, arguing that Verdi had understood that a work that was to live in the future must be inspired by the latest forms of art. Verdi’s reaction to the Paris critics shows that he saw his last French grand opéra as a consistent evolution of artistic intentions which he had attempted to realise in many earlier works, for example the trio in Ernani and the sleepwalking scene in Macbeth. As Verdi
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only became more intensively occupied with Wagner from 1869/70 and had previously only heard the overture to Tannhäuser, which he found “matto” (crazy), it would be absurd to credit him in 1867 with an orientation towards Wagner’s style – even an unconscious one. Most of the inspirations which Verdi had adopted since his first extended stay in Paris from 1847-1849 and incorporated into his own language came from grand opéra, and specifically Meyerbeer, whose works Verdi knew well and highly esteemed. He saw Robert le diable as an admirable combination of fantasy and reality on the lines of Shakespeare. He also felt that Les Hueguenots was genuine theatre. He felt that acts 2 and 4 in particular were “stupendo” (wonderful). However, the dramatic force of Le Prophète struck him as even greater, particularly in the church scene in which Fidès is forced by her son, the false prophet of the Anabaptists, to deny him. Since his experience with Jérusalem (a revision of Lombardi alla prima crociata), Verdi knew how important the staging can be for the lasting success of a work, which means the receipts, which were particularly generous in Paris. However, his correspondence with Eugène Scribe on Les Vêpres siciliennes, his second French piece, show just as clearly that he credited the “marvels” which Meyerbeer created primarily to the original pompous but at the same time passionate situations in the libretti. Luis Véron, the pioneering entrepreneur of the Paris Opéra in the early 1830s, published his recipe for success in 1854 in the third volume of Mémoires d’un bourgeois de Paris. “An opera in five acts can only live with a very dramatic
story which involves the great passions of the human heart and powerful historic interests. However, this dramatic action must be visually understandable, like the story of a ballet, and the chorus must have a dramatic role, and become, as it were, one of the interesting characters in the piece. Each act must offer contrasts in the scenery and costumes, and skilfully prepared situations.” A triumph in Paris for Verdi, who was already dominant in Italy and generally honoured, was just as desirable a goal as it was for many composers before him – for Italians from Lully through Cherubini, Spontini and Rossini to Donizetti, and for Germans from Gluck to Meyerbeer and Wagner – but this had eluded him so far. But he had definitely recognised what non-musical components a resounding success in Paris depended on. This is shown in his correspondence with Opéra director Emile Perrin. In 1864 Verdi declined Scribe’s libretto Judith with the comment, “If I should one day write for the Opéra, then it would only be for a piece which entirely satisfied and above all impressed me.” What exactly he meant by this became clear in July 1865. At that time the French publisher Léon Escudier brought proposals for a Phaidre and a Roi Lear as well as two pieces by Méry and du Locle with him to Sant’ Agata, namely the libretto for a Cleopâtre and a prose scenario for Don Carlos. Camille du Locle was only 32, the son-in-law of Opéra director Perrin, and clearly enjoyed collaborating with Joseph Méry (b. 1798), with his literary experience. Escudier noted in French for Perrin what Verdi decided after only a few days. The section on Don Carlos reads: “Great drama. Too few staging effects.
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We need to find one or two big scenes which make an unpredictable and stunning impression in theatrical terms, but are linked to the drama. You have to add a duet between Posa and Philipp, as there is in Schiller. Give the Grand Inquisitor the character Schiller lends him. Verdi wanted him blind and accompanied by two monks, following Schiller’s scene before the advisors, courtiers etc. enter. There is a dialogue – a short but power ful scene, with important consequences. The appearance of Charles V in the first act is very good.” Clearly, Verdi knew Schiller’s work very well and had duly felt the absence of scenes which are crucial for a deeper understanding of the material. Conversely, he did not feel in any way bound by Schiller, enthusiastically adopting additions which the librettists had planned, and even wanting more dramatic surprises. The fact that the French were used to major departures from Schiller’s presentation is due to the numerous treatments there were of the legendary material of Don Carlos. Schiller’s main sources were the 1589 recollections of Pierre de Bourdeille, and Abbé de SaintRéal’s 1691 Histoire de Dom Carlos, based on historically inaccurate and politically biased reports by Prince William of Orange (1581) and Philipp II’s secretary of state Antonio Perez, who had fled and found ready listeners in France and England. The invented love story of the prince and his beautiful motherin-law in Saint-Réal’s pseudohistorical novel inspired many dramatists. Thomas Otway and Vittorio Alfieri, for example, had already tackled the subject before Schiller. Their various versions of Dom Karlos, Infant von
Spanien were translated several times into French from 1799. These in turn influenced works by Marie-Joseph Chénier, Alexandre Soumet and Eugène Cormon. Edmond Eggli (in his two-volume work Schiller et le Romantisme Français, Paris 1927) noted that Stendhal had considered a three-act opera Don Carlos in 1804, showing the vile tyrant Philipp and the loving couple at the centre of the most beautiful festivals, “hampered by the pomp surrounding them. I would console people for not being a king by showing them how often their greatness constrained them. This aspect of the love of kings is new. The piece would basically follow republican principles, and be more effective because words like fatherland, virtue etc. would not be used.” Madame de Stael’s L’Allemagne in 1813 prized Schiller’s youthful work as a “first-class composition”, writing: “The subject of Don Carlos is one of the most dramatic that history can offer. A young princess, the daughter of Henry II, leaves France and her father’s brilliant chivalrous court to marry an old tyrant, who was so sinister and austere that the actual character of the Spanish was altered by his rule, and the nation bore the stamp of its master for ages. Don Carlos, previously betrothed to Elisabeth, still loves her, although she has become his stepmother. The Reformation and the revolt of the Netherlands, these great political events, join with the tragedy of the father’s condemnation of his son. The individual and public interest are most tightly united in this tragedy.” Madame de Stael later gives a concealed hint of the Napoleonic ban on the performance of the first French treatment of Schiller’s piece, Chénier’s Philippe II (1801). This was apparently
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not allowed to be performed because of its anticlericalism and liberalism, and could only be printed posthumously in 1828, after Alexandre Soumet’s Elisabeth de France had been published and performed. The librettists of Verdi’s Don Carlos may have been inspired by this work to show the appearance of Charles V in the second and last acts of the opera. Chénier and Soumet treat in detail the close link between the Spanish heir to the throne and his grandfather and godfather, who he habitually called father, and who died in the monastery of Saint Just, where he lived as a monk after his abdication. In Schiller, on the other hand, the “emperor’s ghost” wandering the royal palace is only mentioned in the fifth act, because Carlos hopes to visit his stepmother Elisabeth in this disguise. While in Schiller the Infante is arrested by Posa in Eboli’s chamber, this happens in the opera and in Soumet on Philipp’s order, issued before all the courtiers, after Don Carlos has pleaded for the oppressed Flemish, and drawn his sword against his father for denying him the regency of Flanders and Brabant. Soumet’s influence is also shown in the numerous parallel formulations and the adoption of the alarm bell at the start of the uprising. As Marc Clémeur showed, other elements of the action of the opera which are not found in Schiller were taken from Eugène Cormon’s Philippe II (1846). This applies to the unexpected intervention of the Grand Inquisitor, who puts down the popular uprising in seconds, and to the auto da fé, although this happens offstage in Cormon, and is only observed and portrayed from a window. Conversely, Soumet had already dared to make a cleric condemned
by Philipp to fire and iron appear on stage after the torture. The librettists Méry and du Locle demonstrably followed the historical auto da fé on 21 May 1559 in the presence of the 14-yearold Don Carlos in Valladolid, at which 14 heretics were burned, one of them while still alive. In other respects, they were as free with historical truth as Schiller and Cormon, as the historical Don Carlos was a seriously handicapped and bizarre imbecile, clearly unfitted to rule, and also ugly and cruel, as reports by foreign ambassadors show. Philipp was only 33, not an old man when he took Elisabeth as his third wife in 1560. The Escorial which is mentioned in Philipp’s monologue was not even planned at the time. Elisabeth and Don Carlos, who were betrothed as children, only met as 15-year-olds at Philipp’s wedding and the associated auto da fé in Toledo. However, in Cormon’s prologue entitled L’Étudiant d’Alcala, the couple fell in love at the court of Henry II of France. In the summer scene, a gardener gives Elisabeth a bouquet from the student, who then reveals himself to her as her betrothed and confesses his love. There is an obvious parallel to the first act of Verdi’s opera. There is no doubt that Verdi was satisfied with the libretto for the first act. He needed ten weeks to set it in Paris. At the same time the libretto for acts 2-4 were revised in accordance with his wishes, by du Locle alone from mid-February, as Méry was seriously ill and died on 17 June 1867. From endMarch to mid-July Verdi composed in isolation at his home in Sant’ Agata (near Parma), this time particularly suffering from his familiar neck pains, as he found the work “sommamente
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difficile” (extremely difficult). He wrote to Escudier: “I coughed my lungs out over the scene between the king and Posa. And there are more scenes of this kind!” He was dissatisfied with the text for the last act which du Locle had forwarded. He did not want the poetry of Schiller’s sublime concept to be spoiled by a vulgar declaration of love and theatrical effects. He accordingly drafted a shorter ending in French with a chorus of inquisitors before the surprising appearance of Charles V. At the same time, he commissioned du Locle to translate an addition to the Elisabeth-Eboli duet. He had already composed the music, from a passage already cut during the rehearsals to an Italian text he had written himself, and he asked the librettist to respect its accents and rhythms. On 4 July Verdi finally completed the drafts for the fourth act, and left with his wife Giuseppina for Genoa, where he started on the orchestral score. After a futile attempt to void his contract with the Opéra, which assured him of 40,000 francs, because of the political tension between France and Italy, the Verdis arrived in Paris on 24 July. The composer gave Perrin the incomplete score for acts 1-3, followed by act 4, so that the rehearsal material could be produced for the soloists and chorus. Verdi started rehearsing with the artists and repetiteurs on 11 August, but the Verdis left for Cauteret in the Pyrenees on 18 August, where the composer devoted himself to act 5, although with some delay, since he had left the text and drafts in Paris. From mid-September Verdi again participated regularly in the rehearsals, but he had a lot of trouble with his soloists. The young tenor Morère was so unsuited to the demanding title role
that Verdi made many changes to make his part easier. The start of the last act, for example, had been originally composed for Don Carlos, but was revised as a much longer scene for Elisabeth (Marie-Constance Sass), clearly also because she was annoyed by the extensive transpositions and changes which Verdi had made for her rival, Pauline Guéymard-Lauters (Eboli). Part of the duet between the two prima donnas – Eboli’s admission that she was the king’s mistress – was cut. This was done partly out of consideration for the court and bourgeois morality, and partly because Guéymard had fallen ill during the rehearsals and her understudy had a smaller voice. Verdi finally had to be satisfied with a second-rate singer for the role of the Grand Inquisitor, as Beval, a first bass, envied his colleague Obin for the role of the king, and even went to court over the matter. Faure, the Marquis of Posa, met the hopes placed in him, but clearly felt it was unreasonable to have to lie on stage in his death scene after a long lament and the subsequent uprising. The wonderful lament over the murdered Posa (which Verdi subsequently used in a revised form as the Lacrymosa in his Requiem) was cut entirely, and the uprising scene was shortened. Both of these were also done out of consideration for Morère’s vocal problems (he had to take a whole month’s break), and the unconvincing performance of the choruses. The overall result of this final scene must have been so unsatisfying at the première that Verdi gave up and let the act end with Posa’s death. By contrast, the extensive ballet, which Verdi only completed in mid-February 1867, was augmented and revised. Instead of the originally planned God of
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Coral, there is a Queen of the Oceans, and the fairest pearl, which one of Philipp II’s pages had sought for his king in the Indian Ocean, is not Elisabeth but Eboli, who had previously changed clothes with the queen, who was tired of the ball. The title of the ballet, La Pérégrina, is a play on the precious pearl of the same name, owned by Napoleon III long after Philipp II. In 1869, when Verdi was determined never to write again for the Paris “grande boutique”, he admitted to his friend Camille du Locle that under the production conditions at the Opéra an “opera di getto” (a uniform opera) was not possible, that it would always have to be merely a mosaic – however beautiful it may still be. Verdi believed that he could sense the deadly atmosphere of the Opéra even in Rossini’s French operas, an atmosphere of doubt, of premature vicious criticism and partisan judgments. This, he felt, could weaken even the most brilliant composer’s convictions and make him revise his work, or – more accurately – spoil it. In Italy, by contrast, they respect the work and the author, and let the audience be the judge. “In the foyer at the Opéra people are whispering everywhere after four bars ’Oh, ce n’est pas bon... c’est commun... ce n’est pas de bon goût... ça n’ira pas à Paris...’ – What do these pathetic words like commun…, bon goût..., Paris…, mean when you’re looking at a work of art which has to be universal!” A major revision was caused by two enquiries from Vienna, where Don Carlos would only be acceptable in a significantly shorter version. The first, in 1875, was unavailing. Verdi knew that a satisfactory shorter version would require extensive changes to the libretto. Here, he was dependent on the cooperation of
du Locle, who held the rights to the text. However, the long-standing friendship between Verdi and the librettist (who was 20 years younger) and his wife had been broken off, apparently hopelessly. The reason was financial disputes. In the war of 1870, Verdi had been unable to collect the first third of his fee for Aida personally in Paris, and he commissioned his librettist to buy Italian bonds and manage them as a trustee. When du Locle needed money shortly after this (he had taken over management of the Opéra Comique) he asked for Verdi’s permission to pledge the securities temporarily as collateral for a personal loan. Verdi generously agreed, but in 1875 he was forced to recognise that du Locle had concealed his true situation and had become bankrupt. A gruelling court case resulted. It was only in 1882, with the second enquiry from Vienna, that a way out was found through the intercession of Charles-Louise-Ètienne Truinet, archivist of the Opéra and librettist under the pseudonym Charles Nuitter. We know from the correspondence between Verdi, Nuitter and du Locle that it would probably never have come to a revision of Don Carlos without this close friend of du Locle. Nuitter, who was solely an intermediary in the correspondence from June 1882 to February 1883, carefully kept the letters to him from Verdi and the texts forwarded to him from Rome by du Locle. The correspondence shows why Verdi had newly composed individual parts of his opera, without shortening it in every instance. He made cuts not only to eliminate parts which did not agree with Schiller’s concept, but also passages where the music seemed to him to be weak or unsuccessful. He
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THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL GRAND OPERAS
particularly wanted to give the duet between Philipp and Posa, which he regarded as an “imbroglio” (a mess) or a “punto nero” (pimple) a new form, forcing himself to write new music for it. Verdi set the text he wanted for this scene word for word himself, with the help of a translation of Schiller. Similarly, the new adherence to Schiller’s text resulted in Eboli’s full confession returning to the opera. Of the first act Verdi retained only Don Carlos’s romance, which, together with the recollection motif from the duet, was slightly changed and linked to the new version of the old act 2. The theme of this romance was used as the source for the new prelude to the third act, which replaces the change of clothing and subsequent ballet. The fourth act quartet was improved musically without any changes to the text. In the following scene between the king and queen, Verdi replaced Elisabeth’s “silly cantabile” with a more energetic passage which is far more effective theatrically. For the uprising after the murder of Posa, Verdi composed a new, shorter version, as otherwise Eboli’s words “Un jour me reste! Je le sauverais!” (I still have a day, I will save him!) are meaningless. The close of the last act was largely freshly conceived, this time without the chorus of inquisitors. Astonishingly, the appearance of Charles V was retained, although Verdi has also described it in 1882 as a “punto nero”. Du Locle succeeded in settling all Verdi’s scruples about the historical inaccuracies in Schiller’s drama and saving the great dramatic impact of the original version.
The new music in 1882/83 amounted to around one third of the four-act version and is closer in expressiveness and dramatic intensity to Othello than Aida, showing Verdi at the peak of his artistic skills. Even so, the most expressive scenes of the music drama date from 1866. The auto-da-fé, masterfully linked with the dramatic clash between father and son, is far more than a showpiece of grand opéra. The mystical voice from heaven which sounds during the burning of the heretics must also be seen as an expression of the composer’s deeply religious fundamental attitude, like the unreal appearance of Charles V and the choruses of monks recalling the ephemeral nature of all earthly things. As in Schiller, the most lasting effect is the monologue of the lonely and unloved monarch, tormented by jealousy. This lyrical and dramatic scene displays a skill of psychological characterisation through the music of a level rarely repeated. The same level is evident in the dialogue between the supreme secular ruler and the blind representative of the Catholic faith, the aged Grand Inquisitor, who is inaccessible to human concerns and whose implacable demands force the king to his knees. Verdi achieved an unforgettable strength and inner truth in the tonal setting of these scenes. Verdi’s satisfaction with the revision, even though the historical inaccuracies were not removed, is evident in a letter to his publisher Giulio Ricordi, where he writes at one point: “I’m not unhappy with the appearance of the old emperor!”
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HEINRICH VON KLEIST / DER ZERBROCHNE KRUG
„Here on this hole, where there’s nothing now, These our Netherlandish Provinces Were handed over to the Spanish Philipp. Here, in regal robes, stood Charles the Fifth; Of him – look you – his legs alone still stand. Here Philipp kneeled to receive the crown. He lies inside, but for his buttocks, And they, too, suffered a rude blow. There his two cousins, the Queens of France And Hungary, moved to tears, dabbed them From their eyes, and if you can make out, here, This lonely hand lifting its handkerchief, It is as if, poor thing, it mourns its fate. Here, in the middle, with his holy hat, The Archbishop of Arras stood, but him The Devil took – both man and mitre – Leaving his shadow only, stretched out Black, along the cobblestones. Here, the royal guard stood rightly ranked, With upright pikes and clustered halberds thick. Here houses – look you – fronting the Great Square of Brussels; and here’s a face still gazing From a window, though what there’s Now to see I wouldn’t know.“
RENÉ LEIBOWITZ
DON CARLOS, OR THE ILLUSIONS OF CHIAROSCURO As Theophile Gautier wrote, the music of Don Carlos astonished the audiences. According to him, this surprise was due to the fact that the score had a “powerful simplicity” and new elements which the public was not accustomed to. Gautier continued with more details, writing of “an unusual development of the harmonic resources, refined orchestral colours and new melodic forms.” How accurate is this, and what exactly does it mean? It would be unfair to question the intelligence, intuition or even knowledge of one of the relatively rare perceptive commentaries on the world première of Don Carlos. But I do feel the need to correct the basic concepts of the problem. In fact, these are very complex and ambiguous: even if it is beyond doubt that Don Carlos really does introduce some new expressive means, these come ready formed (or at least prepared) in a completely logical and “normal” way, i.e. are very simply an appropriate and integral part of Verdi’s development. As a result, it is just as absurd to show surprise at the innovations in the score as it is not to be surprised by them. Previous pages: ROBERTO TAGLIAVINI as FILIPPO
Clearly, the surprise can only be based on a certain failure to recognise the deeper qualities of the works which precede Don Carlos. At the time of the world première, such a failure is perhaps explicable, and could even be justified. Unfortunately, the failure has persisted to the present day, and even if Theophile Gautier can be forgiven for it, it seems to me to be inappropriate in certain contemporary scholars. One of these (although not the only one) is Pierre Petit, who has given us an “analysis” of Don Carlos which I find so astonishing that we should take a few moments to look at the problems it poses. “Ultimately, this Don Carlos […] suffers from a fundamental flaw, which is that Verdi is in a way taking his first steps as a “modern harmonist” […] Unfortunately everything in Don Carlos proceeds as if the melody was created after a harmonic framework, as if Verdi had liberated it more or less laboriously from the latter. This new attitude towards the melodic line clearly forces Verdi to make an effort which goes against his nature. The change of course which this requires – and which will fi-
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DON CARLOS, OR THE ILLUSIONS OF CHIAROSCURO
nally be completed for the later works – takes place precisely in Don Carlos. The harmonic concern is always present but does not always go well with the melodic élan which is so natural to Verdi. There is the occasional miracle where the arc of the vocal phrase manages to retain its spontaneous allure. […] However, most of the time we are all too conscious that Verdi is constrained by the harmonic riches which he is seeking […] Even before it can develop, the melody is hampered by an unusual burden of new sonorities from the pen of a composer who had previously been so direct. However, Verdi quickly recovers his easy mastery. [...] Don Carlos served him to some extent as a test bench for a formula which he will ultimately make his own.” So, what does Pierre Petit mean by a “modern harmonist”? I assume that there is a relationship here with the “change of course” he mentions. However, I must admit that I do not understand this. The melodies in Don Carlos seem to me to be in their entirety every bit as beautiful and “spontaneous” as those in all Verdi’s other operas. Conversely, Pierre Petit allows this quality only in certain pages of the score, even though this contains one or more melodies for all the main characters which are among the most beautiful our composer ever wrote. I also do not recognise any place in the score where the “harmonic concern” is incompatible with the “melodic élan”, where the melody was created “after the harmonic framework”, and so on. I also do not see how anyone can feel that Verdi is “constrained by these harmonic riches”. The harmonic riches – clearly undeniable – are one of the fascinating
aspects of the score, but far from the melody being “hampered by an unusual burden of new sonorities”, this harmony and sonority open up musical perspectives which make Don Carlos one of the most passionate works in the entire operatic literature. That Verdi progressed in the course of his career, and did so at all levels of musical composition, is a given (and the same commonplace applies to all the great masters of our art) – but why make Don Carlos the poster child for a change of course in terms of harmony and sonorities, when this score shows no fundamental difference from earlier works? Even so, the commentators on Verdi who see Don Carlos as a sort of special case (and even the poster child for a change) are not entirely wrong. Even if they have fallen into the error of assigning the specific unique features of the work to certain minor elements, they still feel right as soon as their comments include the fact that there is a new lyri cal and musical dialectic in this work. But this step forwards is not due solely to a “complete lyrical success” or a “test bench” for a formula that Verdi will ultimately make his own. This would make Don Carlos at best a sort of preparation for our composer’s three last works (Aida, Otello and Falstaff ). On the contrary, the project of Don Carlos is one of a kind. There are very specific efforts here – which in a certain sense are greater than in any other of Verdi’s operas. We have before us an “insane” project which turns our work into a unique (and completely meaningful) event which is not really developed further either in Verdi’s later works or in the oeuvre of any other composer. This is
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what we need to understand now. It is almost impossible to get even an approximate sense of the riches that lie in the score of Don Carlos. Nevertheless, I feel that a summary analysis of certain pages will highlight the essential meaning. The first scene of act 1 (in the fouract version), which takes little more than a quarter of an hour, introduces a host of musical and dramatic events. The monks’ chorus, above which the aria of the decrepit monk rises. The meeting between Don Carlos and the monk (whose voice reminds Don Carlos of the deceased monarch). And finally, the arrival of Rodrigo and the duet between the two protagonists. Note that this duet is structured by the arrival of Philipp II and Elisabeth, who appear among the monks (this is again a simple pantomime, but so dramatically intensive as a result of the diverse emotions it triggers in the various characters!), and the new interruption by the monks. The scene closes with a pact of friendship and liberty between Don Carlos and Rodrigo. Once again, the chiaroscuro creates a ghostly atmosphere
throughout the entire scene, and it is worth quoting a piece of the first scene whose harmonic and orchestral structure most clearly shows the gloomy setting. Example 1 shows the end of the first section of the monks’ chorus. The harmonic chiaroscuro is evident in the constant switch from minor (dark) to major (light) in the first four bars. This effect – with its disarming but highly effective simplicity – recurs in the instrumentation of the major chords in the second and fourth bars. The F sharp in the bass is played in unison by the three horns and the second bassoon, while the first bassoon plays a solo A sharp. This gives the third in the low register a dark colour, while the high register is orchestrated to sound clear. The C sharp is doubled at the octave by the second oboe and first flute, while the F sharp is played in unison by the first oboe and second flute. The second scene of act 1 is the longest scene in the entire piece (it runs for about 40 minutes). it is also the only one that takes place in daylight, although the end has a twilight atmosphere again. A short prelude reminiscent of
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DON CARLOS, OR THE ILLUSIONS OF CHIAROSCURO
Bizet’s Carmen brings on the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, and finally Princess Eboli sings the Veil Song (here again there is a clear sense of a certain relationship with Carmen). This is followed directly by a new scene. Elisabeth enters from the monastery;
figure of rare elegance in the first violins (marvellously suitable as a setting of the frivolous style of the conversation), a dialogue develops between Eboli and Rodrigo, who sing over unison violin fragments of the main melody (example 2a).
Rodrigo approaches and gives Elisabeth a letter from Don Carlos. To give the queen a chance to read the letter, Rodrigo engages Eboli in a frivolous conversation. Verdi achieves one of his most complete and subtle psychological ensembles here. Over an ostinato
Elisabeth on the other hand is helpless in the face of her passion. She delivers her comments in asides. At first she sings in parlando on the basis of a single note. Each time she reverts to actually singing, her melody is completely independent of the main melody (example 2b).
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RENÉ LEIBOWITZ
We are dealing once again with an effect of the chiaroscuro, as reflected in the polyphonic concept of the piece. The action continues with Rodrigo’s romance, which is followed by the great scene and duet between Elisabeth and Don Carlos. The entry of Philipp II and his banishment of the countess of Aremberg (who has failed in her role as lady-in-waiting) creates a dramatic break, followed by Elisabeth’s melancholy romance (lamenting the departure of the countess). This is accompanied by Rodrigo, Philipp and the chorus. The scene closes with the great scene and duet between Rodrigo and Philipp. Thinking about the architectonic design for this long and complex scene, it is interesting to see that Verdi uses certain structural patterns here (as almost always through-
out the piece) which are reminiscent of those in Carl Maria von Weber’s Euryanthe. The relationship between Don Carlos and German Romanticism is particularly clear here. In fact, Verdi avoids every real break between the individual numbers, and the various insertions and changes are always kept together by harmonic progression which simply and logically links one number with the next. For example, the prelude in B minor is followed by the women’s chorus in B major. However, Eboli’s interventions begin a modulation to A major, the key of the Veil Song. The small scene before the trio begins in the same key, where the break between the two numbers consists only of a short tacet and the contrast of style, rhythm, tempo and the intensity of the orchestration (example 3).
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The whole orchestra is involved fortissimo in the “event” of the song, while only the strings (pianissimo) indicate the opening of the following scene. From the start, the G of the violas and celli (bar 5 of our example) prepares for the D major which will emerge in the trio. The break between this number and the following scene (the entry of Don Carlos) follows an even more subtle process which resembles the one in the preceding break. A short tacet, the change in rhythm, tempo, intensity and instrumentation, with the whole based on a more complete harmonic development (example 4).
role during the trio, while the following scenes are marked by the characteristic octaves of the woodwind (first flute and first oboe in the upper octave, first clarinet and first bassoon in the lower one). Harmonically, the contrast is extreme, going from D major to E flat major without any modulation. The logic of this development lies in the fact that the great duet between Elisabeth and Carlos begins in D minor, giving the first scene a Neapolitan touch which is subsequently confirmed. Meanwhile, the last part of the duet is back in E flat major. The tonic serves as a dominant of A flat major, which introduces the following scene
It should be noted that the piano mood of the entire end of the trio is dispelled by the final chord, which is enough to create a contrast to the following piano. The strings primarily play the main
with the entry of Philipp. The new key (sonority) naturally modulates to its relative minor (F minor) which begins Elisabeth’s romance. The break again follows the familiar pattern (example 5a).
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RENÉ LEIBOWITZ
The romance continues in F major, briefly returning to F minor and ending again in F major. This is followed by the great scene and duet between Rodrigo and Philipp, which ends the scene. The transition is subtle: after the romance ends on the tonic triad of F major, Philipp’s intervention begins with F and A, where the A is seen as the mediant of F, which modulates to the tonic of A minor (example 5b). The continuation of the piece is complex. The key of A minor modulates to A major, which in turn acts as the dominant of D minor (to be precise, this is the start of the duet). A bold modulation of unusual force to B flat major emphasises the dramatic moment of Rodrigo’s rebellion (example 6a). The 4/2 chord on C sharp must be seen enharmonically as a 5/6 chord on the sixth note of B flat, which quite naturally allows the introduction of the dominant of this key (see the 4/6 chord on the first note) (example 6b).
its complexity and key characteristics. Act 2 is divided into two fairly short scenes. The first lasts for a little less than a quarter of an hour, the second does not even last for 20 minutes. After the curtain rises, we hear the duet between Don Carlos and Eboli (disguised as Elisabeth), and the scene closes with the trio between Don Carlos, Eboli and Rodrigo. All this has a relatively simple structure but is unusually concentrated. The musical character wonderfully reflects the nocturnal mood of this dramatically decisive moment. The trio again is a marvellous example of a “psychological whole”. It should be noted that the powerful orchestral postlude cites the theme of the pact of friendship between Don Carlos and Rodrigo which we heard in the first scene of act 1. Although also relatively small in scale, the second scene of act 3 has the form of a monumental and extremely complex structure. We are clearly at the pinnacle of the drama with the auto-da-fé,
A minor (the finale of the scene started in this key) is confirmed again, to give it complete justification. Finally, the duet closes in the keys of F minor and F major, ensuring the tonal unity of the entire second part of the scene. We need to continue in the score to get as complete as possible an idea of
and Verdi does not hesitate to use the most extreme and forceful measures. These are based entirely on his means of expression. And it would take a separate study to analyse these pages of the score. They form one of the great and most successful mass scenes in all opera. Suffice it to say that after a dramatic
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DON CARLOS, OR THE ILLUSIONS OF CHIAROSCURO
culmination involving a polyphonic passage of rare intensity (with Elisabeth, Thibault, Don Carlos, Rodrigo, the six Flemish deputies, six monks and the people’s chorus), the tableau seems to end with an A flat major chord sung by everyone. However, Verdi manages (through his title figure) to introduce a completely unexpected episode preceded by the coda which increases the dramatic intensity even more. The furious intervention of Don Carlos, who draws his sword against his father, the terrified or scandalised intervention by the others, the short, energetic intervention by Rodrigo, “Votre épée!” (“A me il ferro!”), who disarms his friend – all this drives the drama to a new peak of rage and bitterness. The friendship theme is heard again, while the stunned Don Carlos surrenders his sword to Rodrigo. For the first time their shared theme loses its triumphal character and is played in the subtlest piano (example 7).
and restrained). The flames of the pyres are seen flickering, the various chorus groups, the Flemish deputies, monks, people and Philipp blend into the angel’s voice and the curtain falls in full daylight. There are two scenes in act 3. The first has four important musical numbers which are all astonishing – Philipp’s introduction and aria, the scene between Pilip and the Grand Inquisitor, the scene and quartet with Elisabeth, Eboli, Rodrigo, Philipp, and the scene between Elisabeth and Eboli with Eboli’s aria. The introduction to Philipp’s aria is one of the richest and most daring pieces of music (melodically and harmonically) that Verdi ever wrote. The following aria is rightly not only one of the most famous pieces in the work but also (I would say) the favourite of every bass in the world. Like this aria the following piece, the scene between Philipp and the Grand Inquisitor, is a virtual
This takes us into the coda, and preparation for burning the heretics. A variant of the fanfares which opened the scene takes us back to the force of the beginning. Then a voice from heaven is suddenly heard, accompanied by harp and harmonium (played onstage, the pit orchestra interventions are sporadic
paradigm of an operatic dramatic situation. On his entrance, this blind nonagenarian immediately fills the stage with a sense of terror. It should be noted that the entire first part of the scene takes place in a twilight setting, between day and night. The day only begins to break
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during Philipp’s aria, and it would be wise not to brighten the following scene too much, in order to match the effect of the musical text. This dialogue between two basses (which not accidentally recalls the one between Rigoletto and Sparafucile – they are in the same key!) develops from a bass theme (example 8).
The second scene of act 3 is significantly shorter. It lasts around a quarter of an hour, and consists of only one number, the death of Rodrigo, followed by the popular uprising. The scene is set in a dark, underground dungeon where Don Carlos is imprisoned. Rodrigo enters. He knows that he will die.
Its orchestration is very dark (note the use of the double basses in the lower octave, with the celli and bassoons in unison). Dramatically, this scene is the focus of the inner conflicts of the characters. The psychological treatment reaches its climax in the quartet. At the same time, we see how Verdi achieves the most subtle effects of chiaroscuro in this piece. After a turbulent scene between Elisabeth and Philipp, at the end of which Elisabeth faints, the quartet begins on a very tender and restrained note, with everyone singing separately and nobody knowing what the others are saying. It is only at the end that the musical and dramatic tone becomes extremely brilliant, in parallel with the growing light. This happens at the moment when Eboli asks Elisabeth for forgiveness for her treachery. The scene climaxes in Eboli’s famous aria “Ô don fatal” (“O don fatale”), which is another of the great gems of the opera repertoire.
A recitative duet between the two accompanied only by strings is followed by a short arioso for Rodrigo. An armed man shoots Rodrigo and wounds him fatally. In a marvellous and very brief arioso – it lasts for only eight bars – Rodrigo begs Don Carlos to take up the cause of the Flemish people. The theme of the pact is heard for the last time (again in a very shaded piano) and the arioso is also repeated in a small but very subtle variant. Rodrigo dies in his friend’s arms. Philipp enters dramatically to make peace with his son by trying to return his sword Don Carlos rejects it and curses his father. The cries of the people are heard as they try to force their way into the prison and liberate Don Carlos. Philipp himself gives the order to open the prison gates. The people stream in. At the moment when the people seem to have gained the upper hand, the Grand Inquisitor makes his second terrifying entrance. He succeeds in suppressing
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DON CARLOS, OR THE ILLUSIONS OF CHIAROSCURO
the uprising and forces the crowd to their knees. Again, we are dealing with a multi faceted structure, characterised by highly diverse (musical and dramatic) processes which achieve extreme concentration of the means of expression in the shortest possible time. No protracted emotional outpourings, no effusions! Instead, even the “most sentimental” music (Rodrigo’s arioso, for example) is astonishingly striking and pithy. In view of this we can only marvel at the way Verdi’s art (genius) is driven by opposites. In fact, the concept of act 3 presents two diametrically opposed characteristics which motivate the music. The fourth and last act consists of a single scene, lasting less than 20 minutes, with three pieces – Elisabeth’s scene and aria, the scene and farewell duet between Elisabeth and Don Carlos, and the finale of the opera. We are back at the monastery of St Just before the grave of Charles V. It is night (moonshine). A relatively long orchestral prelude using the chorus of monks at the start of act 2 as its material, leads to Elisabeth’s aria, which has a rich and complex form. In front of Charles V’s grave, Elisabeth is helplessly
stricken by grief. The tempo is slow (largo, crotchet = 72) and the melody (starting in F sharp minor, then modulating to F sharp major) is intensely expressive. In a brief, moving moment Elisabeth thinks of Don Carlos, knowing that he will look for her. The duet between the two is followed by the very brief and striking finale. In 40 bars lasting no more than two minutes, we see Philipp enter and tear Elisabeth from Carlos’ arms, and the entry of the Grand Inquisitor, who speaks just two sentences. We also see Don Carlos defending himself against the men of the Holy Office. He nears the grave of Charles V. The gates of the grave open, and the mysterious monk from act 1 scene 1 appears. He looks like the incarnation of Charles V himself. He takes Carlos off with him. We said that we believe Don Carlos is one of Verdi’s most powerful and original works. Our interest in this is not based – as so often said elsewhere – on a certain transitional quality (Verdi between the traditional and Wagnerian Verdi) but on the musical and dramatic qualities of the opera itself. Our analysis of the score is an attempt to bring these to light.
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KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV
WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN? KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV ON WORKING ON DON CARLO
Kirill Serebrennikov made his début as director and costume and set designer at Vienna State Opera in 2000 with Wagner’s Parsifal. At the time, he was still subject to arbitrary treatment by the Russian government, which refused to let him travel abroad, threatened him with with imprisonment and only allowed him to work by live video. He managed to leave Russia shortly after the full escalation of the Russian attack on Ukraine, and has since directed numerous films, plays and operas in western Europe. Most recently he directed the world première at the Ruhrtriennale of his play Legende, based on motifs from the life of the Georgian film director Sergei Parajanov. He arrived in Vienna in mid-August to direct Verdi’s Don Carlo. Sergio Morabito as the production’s dramaturge documented Serebrennikov’s thoughts on approaching the score here.
“We subjected our costume replicas to processes of destruction and erosion as if they really had survived five centuries.” Verdi doesn’t make the director’s life easy. It’s difficult to stage his operas rationally, and there’s a serious risk of finding yourself at a conceptual dead end. A masterpiece which is as compact and appealingly structured throughout as Don Carlo almost speaks for itself, resisting a whole range of modern production techniques. As a director, I was accordingly confronted by, and am facing, a major challenge. The following consideration became the key to my concept. Schiller himself once described the piece as “a family portrait in a princely house.” This means we need to look at the historical and social setting of his story and his characters. But I had to find my own artistic access to this for the opera to be genuine theatre, and not a “concert
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WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN?
in costume”, as we describe opera performances with static staging and lack of dramatic interpretation throughout. And this meant I had to dramatise the costumes themselves. We decided to reconstruct the costumes of the historic actors in an elaborate process. The official costumes of the historical originals of the characters in the piece – Philipp II of Spain, his son Don Carlos, Elisabeth, the French princess engaged to Carlos, who was then claimed by his widowed father, princess Eboli, and the mysterious monk presumed to be Carlos’ grandfather, Charles V – are documented in a number of contemporary full-length portraits in the 16th century. Naturally, these portraits and their depictions are primarily statements about power. The power of the person wearing the costumes is shown by their costliness, and not least by the time needed to create and put on this extremely elaborate court dress. Everything is about the wearer of the costume, and about power. At the same time, the freedom of movement of the wearer is severely restricted. The costume becomes a physical prison for those in power, imposing discipline and the constraints of court ceremony on them. The historical costume is directly connected with the question of power and freedom, which are the central themes of the opera. Together with the costume designer Galya Solodovnikova we launched a major research project in which we studied many sources for the history of costume in the 15 th century before we spent another whole year on actual production of these “museum pieces” in collaboration with the wonderful workshop of the Vienna State Opera. One
challenge was to not only reproduce the external appearance of the originals, but to actually build the costumes from the ground up, staying absolutely true to the historical reality, from smallclothes to undergarments to hoop skirts and hose to all the accessories, ribbons, gloves, pearls, feathers and other appliqués, jewellery, orders, weapons, and – naturally – footwear. In the process we experimented with almost obsolete weaving, sewing, embroidery, finishing and dyeing techniques. This is the first time that I’ve worked on reconstructing historical costumes in the opera. However, this historical reference is only one of many levels in my production. Because we’re presenting these costumes in a contemporaneous context. One of my strongest impressions when I was travelling in Japan was the visit to the famous Kyoto Costume Institute, which houses over 13,000 original items from all eras and cultures. I asked for a guided tour of the complex, which looks unimpressive from the outside. However, once inside the warehousing, research, restoration and exhibition rooms I felt as if I’d been catapulted into the 23rd century. The work is carried out at hi-tech computer workstations with futuristic light fittings, the surface of the walls is protected against UV radiation, dust, moisture and all other damaging environmental influences, all of it to protect the most fragile items, the ultrasensitive fibres and textures, some of which have to be stored in temperature-controlled compartments. The archived textiles may only be touched with white gloves, which are also specially manufactured. Even so, you feel the risk to the objects physically, precisely because everything humanly possible is done here to pro-
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WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN?
tect them against decay. This experience opened up another dimension of Verdi’s opera for me – the knowledge of human mortality, passions, efforts and deeds, the flow of time which obviously or imperceptibly erases and destroys all human creations. Don Carlo begins with a reminder of mortality, with monks chanting. They are singing about the former supreme monarch, Charles V, and how nothing remains of him but “mute dust” At the end of the opera, the mysterious monk reappears to declare that the “struggle of the heart” will only find peace in heaven, i.e. in eternity. Besides these two dimensions – the residual remains of the 16th century and the present – there is a third level, an intermediary zone as it were, in which past and present mingle and the singers slip out of their modern clothes into the black outline prototypes or samples of the costumes of their historical avatars, and experience their drama afresh.
Just one of Schiller’s characters has no historical basis. Carlos’s friend Rodrigo, the Marquis of Posa, is a figure of the Enlightenment, a modern man, if you like. As an eco-activist he also embodies for us a revolutionary issue, the dysfunctional excessive production and consumption of textiles and clothing under the conditions of today’s capitalist mainstream culture and mass society. This confronts us with the catastrophic working conditions of textile workers in Taiwan, Pakistan, China and India, and the no less catastrophic consequences of the so-called disposal of textile waste, which is resulting in the formation of mountains of refuse and the devastation of whole areas of the landscape, for example in Latin America. Posa raises the question of freedom, and a form of society fit for humanity today, in order to hand it on to us, the audience.
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ÈVE-MAUD HUBEAUX as EBOLI SUPERNUMERARY
IMPRINT GIUSEPPE VERDI
DON CARLO SEASON 2024/25 PREMIÈRE OF THE PRODUCTION 26 SEPTEMBER 2024 Publisher WIENER STAATSOPER GMBH, Opernring 2, 1010 Wien Director DR. BOGDAN ROŠČIĆ Music Director PHILIPPE JORDAN Administrative Director DR. PETRA BOHUSLAV General Editors SERGIO MORABITO, ANDREAS LÁNG, OLIVER LÁNG Design & concept EXEX Layout & typesetting MIWA MEUSBURGER Image concept MARTIN CONRADS, BERLIN (Cover) Fotos by FROL PODLESNYI / MICHAEL PÖHN & SOFIA VARGAIOVÁ/WIENER STAATSOPER GMBH Printed by PRINT ALLIANCE HAV PRODUKTIONS GMBH, BAD VÖSLAU TEXT & IMAGE REFERENCES Original german version of the Don Carlo program booklet of the Wiener Staatsoper 2024. ENGLISH TRANSLATION Andrew Smith. Reproduction only with approval of Wiener Staatsoper GmbH / Dramaturgy. Holders of rights who were unavailable regarding retrospect compensation are requested to make contact.
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