BWW Reviews: What A Day for an Auto-da-fe and DON CARLO at the Met

What a great idea it was for the Met to mount revivals of Verdi's ERNANI and DON CARLO at the same time! It offers an opportunity to compare two operas that have some things in common: One from the start of the composer's career (ERNANI) and the other nearer the end, both take place in Spain, both have major (related) characters named Don Carlo. Neither had stellar performance histories at the Met until their rediscoveries in the 1950s.

The Met's current offering of DON CARLO, with the Met orchestra under the sure baton of Yannick Nezet-Seguin and chorus under Donald Palumbo, is an exciting performance. It has a mostly solid cast in Nicholas Hytner's evocative production that plays to all the opera's strengths; it was designed and costumed by Bob Crowley (responsible for the current Broadway production of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS) with lighting by Mark Henderson, and stage direction by J. Knighten Smit. The opera covers a panorama of history in the time of Philip II, a figure probably most familiar to art-lovers as the subject of an endless number of portraits by the great Spanish painter Diego Velasquez. The story is filled with political and religious conflicts and includes an auto-da-fe, which condemned and executed heretics during the Spanish Inquisition. (Live and in person!)

Heading the cast is the formidable Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee in the title role, the son of Philip--a star turn that isn't afraid to bring out the impetuous, immature side of the prince, as well as the politically and morally responsible aspects of the character. Oddly, Verdi didn't give the have much in the way of solos, but Lee manages his way around that. His strong impact was felt in his ensemble work, particularly the rousing duet, "Dio, che nell'alma infondere," with Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as his great friend, the Marquis de Posa (in an urgent and effective performance).

Like son, like father: The other stellar performance came from Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip. Furlanetto has owned this role for quite a while and doesn't disappoint at the Met, coming to a head in his great Act IV monologue bemoaning the fact that his wife never loved him, "Ella giammai m'amò." (Why should she? She was supposed to marry Carlo and was co-opted by the king at the last minute.)

Russian mezzo Ekaterina Gubanova was Princess Eboli, who was used and abused by Phillip, then mistakenly thinks Carlo wants her; her multi-faceted performance was, in turn, charming in "The Veil Song" and powerful in "O don fatale." Bass James Morris was properly creepy as the manipulative Grand Inquisitor. Of the principals, only Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli disappointed, particularly in one of the opera's most gorgeous arias, "Tu che la vanita," which remained still-born.

For me, DON CARLO shows the triumph of the composer as a mature musician-as well as a compelling storyline that makes sense (mostly), combining history and romance and shortchanging neither. It's based on a German play by Friedrich Schiller, and, yes, Verdi and his librettists tried to cover too much history, but no matter. I can't imagine what the opera was like--or how unintelligible its father-son conflict was--without the opening scene in the forest of Fontainbleau, which the composer added in his second round of changes after the work was translated into Italian. (The original version, in French, is called DON CARLOS.)

A long evening--five acts over four-and-a-half hours--DON CARLO is still not one of Verdi's most popular operas. Perfect or not, that doesn't stop it from being one of his most exciting and moving works.

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Photo: Act III, Madrid's Basilica of Our Lady of Atocha, Barbara Frittoli and Ferruccio Furlanetto, center.

Yonghoon Lee and Barbara Frittoli.

Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

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