Don Carlo revisited

I returned last night to Covent Garden to see Don Carlo again. Last time, I was well back in the Amphitheatre, this time I was in a Balcony Box on the Left, on an imaginary line that runs behind the conductor.

In almost all respects, it was a much better performance than two weeks ago, for a variety of reasons. In one significant respect it wasn't. Unfortunately, Marina Poplavskaya had called in sick, and was replaced by Victoria Nava. Victoria was nothing special, and although she got through the role adequately, albeit at times with evidence of strain and tiring, and I wouldn't especially avoid her in the future, there was nothing about her voice or dramatic interpretation that grabbed me.

I had been disappointed with Rolando Villazón a couple of weeks ago. I am such an admirer of him as a singer, and I like him a lot as a person, and he was warm and friendly in his greeting. If last time had been my first time hearing him, I would have thought 'what's all the fuss about'. Last night he was stupendous. As soon as he started with 'O Fontainebleu', I just knew he was on fire, and he just got better and better. I could pinpoint a couple of notes that was less than ideal, but you know, a couple of notes in a major part in a long opera, I only mention it to highlight how gorgeous I found his performance. So many times I was 'oh, that's beautiful'!

Although it's called Don Carlo and I'm a tenor nut, one of the great things about this opera is that it has great writing for many voice types. A major major highlight was the confrontation between Philip II and The Grand Inquisitor, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Eric Halfvarson - two basses! Not just vocally - although I found that I 'got' other people's fascination with basses* - but also dramatically, historically, politically, the confrontation between Church and State.

Tangentially, I have been reading a few Philippa Gregory books recently (which are inspiring me to read further about the Tudor era) and It was interesting reflecting on the parallels at a very similar period of history (Philip II had recently been widowed by Mary Tudor).

Indeed, I found Ferruccio Furlanetto to be splendid throughout, as I had found previously, and I also very much liked his Fiesco earlier this spring, and a couple of years back, in  a rather forgettable Forza he had been superb as Padre Guardiano, so it's probably fair to say he's my favourite Verdian bass. I enjoyed Eric Halfvarson as The Grand Inquisitor and Robert Lloyd as the Monk.

I have nothing but praise for Simon Keenlyside as Posa. A dignified and restrained interpretation and vocally gorgeous. I was reduced to tears early in the scene where he visits Carlo in prison, a nervous wreck, his 'Per me giunto è il di supreme...Ah! io morro, ma lieto in core', sounded even more thrilling than on his album Tales of Opera.  Even though I was expecting the gun shot that killed him, I was shaken and bowled over.  And a major highlight was the scene in the crypt at San Giusto, with that amazing duet Dio, che nell'alma infondere, sung brilliantly by both Eyebrows and Shirtless, who were so convincing in their portrayal of blood brothers.

I was more convinced than before by Sonia Ganassi's performance, certainly vocally, although I still didn't warm to her dramatics. And again I was impressed by the strength in depth, especially Pumeza Matshikiza as Tebaldo and Anita Watson, the Voice from heaven (or actually, the Dome of the Opera House)

I thoroughly enjoyed the orchestral performance, and particularly, the orchestral writing. There's some idiot who writes on opera newsgroups and claims fraudulently to be an orchestral musician, who says that Verdi never wrote properly for the orchestra. The man is either an idiot or has never actually heard Don Carlo (or many others of his great operas). Again and again throughout, I was struck by magical passages. Too many to mention them all, but I particularly adored the cellos accompanying and enhancing Ella giammai m'amo, the naive writing for the brass during the auto da fé, and the frequent use of leitmotifs, especially whenever The Grand Inquisitor was mentioned.

I still don't like the production,although I was satisfied that from my seat nearer the front that it did serve the opera reasonably well. Just a shame that that didn't come over to my not-very-cheap-seat halfway back in the Amphi last time. I think it will look good on Big Screen next week (only Trafalgar Square, Canary Wharf and Liverpool ) and subsequently on DVD (which Marina Poplavskaya referred to on mmofm, and Rolando also mentioned last night). For all the attempts of slick scenery, lean acting and so on, the scene that still worked best for me was the splendidly over-the-top auto da fe. Must mention the always excellent chorus in this scene, in particular.

I attended with Jimmy. At the first interval he said he felt it was dragging, going nowhere, but subsequently he bucked up and really enjoyed it. Perhaps he didn't fully realise at the time, the long drawn out first two acts, taking an hour and a half without interval, are needed in order to build up the story for the various dramatic denouements that occur later on.

Also there were Miriam, Tony and Raff whom I know from various yahoo groups, and Janet from simonkeenlyside.info (which contains lots of info about this production - and much more!).

Don Carlo has to rate as one of my favourite operas. I don't wish to waste time rating very different operas into some league table of spurious precision, but I don't like it any less than Ballo or Rigoletto, and objectively it surpasses Otello in some respects (but subjectively, Otello is my favourite Verdi!). It is a profound story. Essentially a story of the loves and lives of individuals, a Big Theme in itself, and one played out against the Political tensions of the historical time (although this isn't a reliable source for the actual history). A couple of years ago I made a point of studying it in some detail - repeated listenings and watchings, and some reading round the subject. The insights I gained are not particularly reflected in the blogpost I wrote (which was never intended to be an essay!) but I would definitely say that the time and effort I afforded have paid dividends over and again. And CD set remains one of the highlights and treasures of my entire collection.

* I generally find it difficult to differentiate low notes as sung by basses, although, intriguingly perhaps, I often find the basses to be the most goose-pimple  part of choral singing.