CAST:
Ferruccio Furlanetto (Philip II)
Stuart Neill (Don Carlo)
Dalibor Jenis (Rodrigo)
Anatolij Kotscherga
(The Grand Inquisitor)
Fiorenza Cedolins
(Elisabeth de Valois)
Dolora Zajick (Princesse
Eboli)
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Conductor: Daniele Gatti
Staging and sets:
Stéphane Braunschweig
Costumes:
Thibault van Craenenbroeck
Lights: Marion Hewlett
Running time: 3 hrs. 22 min.
plus two intermissions
Sung in Italian with English
subtitles
Photos:
© Clärchen
Baus-Mattar &
Matthias Baus
 |
Don Carlo is possibly the
most intense, deep, nuanced, rich,
and masterful work of the “mature”
Giuseppe Verdi, an extensive and
monumental showcase of everything
Verdi. It is also the Verdi opera
that exists in the most number of
versions.
The version of this “Grand Opera”
that will officially inaugurate the
2008-09 La Scala Opera Season is the
1884 Four Acts version that Verdi
reduced and changed into Italian
from the original 1867 Five Acts
version in French.
The story is based on
conflicts in the life of Carlos,
Prince of Asturias, after his
betrothed Elisabeth of Valois was
married instead to his father Philip
II of Spain as part of the peace
treaty ending the Italian War of
1551-1559 between the Houses of
Habsburg and Valois. (extract from
Wikipedia)
La Scala would not be
La Scala if it had not put together
an incredible team of talents for
its inaugural opera.
The conductor
will be Italian Maestro Daniele
Gatti, who has been acclaimed by the
Wiener Staatsoper in masterpieces of
the German repertoire, invited by
the Wiener Philharmoniker to join
its revered family of conductors,
and who the Wagner Festival in
Bayreuth has chosen this year to
open the festival with Parsifal.
Ferruccio
Furlanetto, the internationally
renowned Italian bass and a master
of stage presence, will take on the
role of Philip II. Fiorenza Cedolins,
Italy’s most requested soprano who
won the Luciano Pavarotti
Vocal
Competition in 1996 and has since
performed with world-renowned
conductors and singers, will portray
Elisabeth de Valois.
Stuart Neill,
one of
the most important tenors in the
classical world today, sings the
title role.
The great musicality of Slovak
baritone Dalibor Jenis will be a
perfect fit for the role of Rodrigo.
Rounding
out the cast, the
American Dolora Zajick, the world’s
premier dramatic Verdi
mezzo-soprano, will appear in one of
her signature roles, that of
Princess Eboli.
The stage direction
and the sets are by the young
Stephane Braunschweig, the Artistic
Director of France’s prestigious
Théâtre National de Strasbourg and
already the creator of a great
number of acclaimed Opera
productions. “He is a young and
extremely sensitive director, who
knows music, who goes straight to
the centre of operas and the heart
of the characters” (Stéphane Lissner,
General Manager and Artistic
Director of the Teatro alla Scala). |
