Review Roundup: DON CARLOS At The Opera Bastille

DON CARLOS runs at the Opera Bastille at The National Opera of Paris through November 11. Verdi's DON CARLOS, a work by an Italian composer created in French, and in which the climate of war with Spain and the melancholy of human beings draw our attention to the fate to Flanders. Politics, religion, history and psychoanalysis are all entwined here, increasingly exacerbating the fears and taboos between the protagonists.

The cast stars Ildar Abdrazakov as Philippe II, Jonas Kaufmann as Don Carlos, Ludovic Tezier as Rodrigue, Dimitry Belosselskiy as Le Grand Inquisitor, Sonya Yoncheva as Elisabeth de Valois, Elina Garanca as Princess Eboli, Eve-Maud Hubeaux as Thibault.

The cast also includes Tiago Matos, Michal Partyka, Mikhail Timoshenko, Tomasz Kumiega, Andrei Filonczyk, Daniel Giulianini, Silga Tiruma, Julien Dran, Hyun-Jong Roh, and Krzysztof Baczyk.

DON CARLOS has a libretto by Joseph Mery and Camille du Locle, with music by Giuseppe Verdi. The opera is directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski and conducted by Pilippe Jordan, with set design by Malgorzata Szcesniak, lighting design by Felice Ross, video by Denis Gueguin, and choreography by Claude Bardouil.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times: Krzysztof Warlikowski, the director, has not created magic, but his production here is restrained and thoughtful, decorous without being chilly. The work has been updated from the 16th century - seemingly to the 1940s or '50s, the stage wrapped in dark-wood paneling - but gently and without provocation. The aim appears less to distort the libretto than to add touches of old-Hollywood glamour with sets and costumes by Malgorzata Szczesniak and film-noir foreboding... The chorus, a bare whisper at the start and fearsome in the auto-da-fé scene, was superb. Philippe Jordan, the Paris Opéra's music director, led a light and agile, brisk but not rushed, performance.

Shirley Apthorp, The Financial Times: It is the women who bring the house down: Sonya Yoncheva, with her ability to convey both the fragility and the strength of Elisabeth with a sound that is open, warm and generous; El?na Garan?a's extraordinary depth and complexity as Eboli, so much more than the usual sultry seductress.... For once, this is an opera evening that lives up to the hype, a production that makes you want to start again at the beginning the moment the final notes have sounded.

Photo: Agatha Poupeney / OnP

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