Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi at Paris Opéra Bastille

A rewriting of its genre… This is what Giuseppe Verdi offered with Don Carlo, an Italian opera written in 1884 and that aims at being the remastered version of Don Carlos – a major French opera by the same composer and staged a few years earlier, in 1867. A masterpiece starring Krysztof Warlikowski for the Opéra Bastille, from October 25 to November 23, 2019.

A work originally based on the eponymous tragedy written by German poet and writer Friedrich von Schiller. This five-act opera is set in 1559 and is about the love affairs between the Infant of Spain Carlos, and the King of France’s (Henri II) daughter Elizabeth de Valois and the King of Spain Philippe II. A love triangle with the Inquisition in the background without forgetting the war between Spain and the Netherlands.

A work in Italian for this second version, with more passion due to the language than the previous version in French. But whether it’s about this Italian version or the original one, “the finesse of the score and the tragic outline” remain and mix “political, family and love conflicts”. A genuine historical fresco to which Krysztof Warlikowski confers “the depth of a huis clos in which the human psyche is laid bare, revealing the paralysis of men faced with the legacy of power”. Note that from October 25 to November 11, it’s Roberto Alagna who plays Don Carlo… Shall we go there, friends?