19th century As Don Carlos in French After the première and before leaving Paris, Verdi authorised the Opéra authorities to end Act 4, Scene 2 with the death of Posa (thereby omitting the insurrection scene) if they thought fit. This was done, beginning with the second performance on 13 March, after his departure. Further (unauthorised) cuts were apparently made during the remaining performances. Despite a grandiose production designed by scenic artists
Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry (Acts I and III),
Édouard Desplechin and
Jean-Baptiste Lavastre (Acts II and V), and
Auguste Alfred Rubé and
Philippe Chaperon (Act IV), it appears to have been a "problem opera" for the Opéra—it disappeared from its repertoire after 1869. File:Marie Sasse as Elisabeth in Don Carlos, 1867 photograph by Numa Blanc – Gallica btv1b52502563r (adjusted).jpg|
Marie Sasse as Elisabeth File:Carlo V (basso), figurino di Alfred Albert per Don Carlos (1867) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON001220.jpg|Costume design for
Charles V, act 5 File:Don Carlos poster.png|Poster depicting the death of Rodrigo in the King's presence
As Don Carlo in an Italian translation in Florence in April–May 1869 which used the Italian translation by Achille de Lauzières It was common practice at the time for most theatres (other than those in French-speaking communities) to perform operas in Italian, and an Italian translation of
Don Carlos was prepared in the autumn of 1866 by
Achille de Lauzières. On 18 November 1866 Verdi wrote to
Giovanni Ricordi, offering the Milan publisher the Italian rights, but insisting that the opera: :must be performed in its entirety as it will be performed for the first time at the Paris Opéra.
Don Carlos is an opera in five acts with ballet: if nevertheless the management of Italian theatres would like to pair it with a different ballet, this must be placed either before or after the uncut opera, never in the middle, following the barbarous custom of our day. The Italian translation was first performed not in Italy but in London at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 4 June 1867, where it was produced and conducted by
Michael Costa. However, it was not as Verdi desired; the opera was given in a cut and altered form, with the first act removed, the ballet in Act 3 omitted, and Carlo's aria
Io la vidi (originally in Act 1) moved to Act 3, just before the terzetto. Additionally, the duet between Philip and the Inquisitor was shortened by four lines, and Elisabeth's aria in Act 5 consisted only of part of the middle section and the reprise. The production was initially considered a success, and Verdi sent a congratulatory note to Costa. Later when he learned of the alterations, Verdi was greatly irritated, but Costa's version anticipated revisions Verdi himself would make a few years later in 1882–83. The Italian premiere on 27 October 1867 at the
Teatro Comunale di Bologna, conducted by Verdi's close friend
Angelo Mariani, was an "instant success", and this version, although produced in Verdi's absence, was more complete and included the ballet. For the Rome premiere on 9 February 1868 at the
Teatro Apollo, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Papal censor changed the Inquisitor into a Gran Cancelliere (Grand Chancellor) and the Monk/Emperor into a Solitario (Recluse). This version of the opera was first performed in Milan at
La Scala on 25 March 1868, and prestige productions in most other Italian opera houses followed, but it did not become a popular success. The length was a particular problem, and subsequent performances were generally heavily cut. The first production in Naples in 1871 was indisputably a failure.
1872 revisions for Naples Following the unsuccessful performance in
Naples in 1871, Verdi was persuaded to visit the city for further performances in November / December 1872, and he made two more modifications to the score: (a) a revision of the closing two-thirds of the Philippe-Rodrigue duet in Act 2, Scene 2 (to Italian verses, almost certainly by
Antonio Ghislanzoni), which replaced some of the previously cut material, and (b) the removal of the
allegro marziale section of the final Elisabeth-Carlos duet (replaced with an 8-bar patch). These are the only portions of the opera that were composed to an Italian rather than a French text. Ricordi incorporated the revisions into later prints of the opera without changing the plate numbers. This subsequently confused some authors, e.g.
Francis Toye and
Ernest Newman, who dated them to 1883.
1882/83 and 1886 revisions: "Milan version" and "Modena version" The idea of reducing the scope and scale of
Don Carlos had originally come to Verdi in 1875, partly as a result of his having heard reports of productions, such as Costa's, which had removed Act 1 and the ballet and introduced cuts to other parts of the opera. By April 1882, he was in Paris where he was ready to make changes. He was already familiar with the work of
Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter, who had worked on French translations of
Macbeth,
La forza del destino and
Aida with du Locle, and the three proceeded to spend nine months on major revisions of the French text and the music to create a four-act version. This omitted Act 1 and the ballet, and was completed by March 1883. An Italian translation of this revised French text, re-using much of the original 1866 translation by de Lauzières, was made by . The La Scala première of the 1883 revised version took place on 10 January 1884 in Italian. Although Verdi had accepted the need to remove the first act, it seems that he changed his mind and allowed a performance which presented the "Fontainebleau" first act along with the revised four-act version. It was given on 29 December 1886 in Modena, and has become known as the "Modena version", which was published by
Ricordi as "a new edition in five acts without ballet".
20th century and beyond In Italian Performances of
Don Carlo in the first half of the twentieth century were rare, but in the post Second World War period it has been regularly performed, particularly in the four-act 1884 "Milan version" in Italian. In 1950, to open
Rudolf Bing's first season as director of the
Metropolitan Opera, the four-act version was performed without the ballet in a production by
Margaret Webster with
Jussi Björling in the title role,
Delia Rigal as Elizabeth,
Robert Merrill as Rodrigo,
Fedora Barbieri as Eboli,
Cesare Siepi as Philip II and
Jerome Hines as the Grand Inquisitor. This version was performed there until 1972. The four-act version in Italian continued to be championed by conductors such as
Herbert von Karajan (1978 audio recording and 1986 video recording) and
Riccardo Muti (1992 video recording). Also influential was a 1958 staging of the 1886 five-act "Modena version" in Italian by
The Royal Opera company, Covent Garden, directed by
Luchino Visconti and conducted by
Carlo Maria Giulini. The cast included
Jon Vickers as Don Carlo,
Tito Gobbi as Rodrigo,
Boris Christoff as King Phillip and
Gré Brouwenstijn as Elizabeth. This version has increasingly been performed elsewhere and has been recorded by, among others,
Georg Solti and Giulini. After the discovery of music cut before the premiere, conductors began performing five-act versions that included some of it. In 1973 at
La Fenice,
Georges Prêtre conducted a 5-act version in Italian without the ballet that included the discarded woodcutters scene, the first Carlo-Rodrigo duet in a hybrid beginning with the Paris edition but ending with the Milan revision, the discarded Elisabeth-Eboli duet from Act 4, and the Paris finale. In 1975,
Charles Mackerras conducted an expanded and modified five-act version (with Verdi's original prelude, the woodcutters' scene and the original Paris ending) in an English translation for
English National Opera at the London Coliseum. In 1978,
Claudio Abbado mounted an expanded five-act version in Italian at La Scala. The cast included
Mirella Freni as Elizabeth,
Elena Obraztsova and
Viorica Cortez as Eboli,
José Carreras in the title role,
Piero Cappuccilli as Rodrigo,
Nicolai Ghiaurov as King Phillip, and
Evgeny Nesterenko as the Grand Inquisitor. On 5 February 1979,
James Levine conducted an expanded five-act version in Italian at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York. The cast included
Renata Scotto as Elizabeth,
Marilyn Horne as Eboli,
Giuseppe Giacomini as Don Carlo,
Sherrill Milnes as Rodrigo, Nicolai Ghiaurov as King Philip, and
James Morris as the Grand Inquisitor. Today, as translated into Italian and presented in four-act and five-act versions, the opera has become part of the standard repertory.
In French Stagings and broadcasts of five-act French versions of the opera have become more frequent in the later 20th and into the 21st century. Up to 1973, these productions consisted of the revised and abridged four-act score of 1882–83 prefaced by the shortened, revised Act 1 set in Fontainebleau. The BBC Concert Orchestra under
John Matheson broadcast the opera in June 1973 with the roles of Don Carlos sung by
André Turp, Philippe II by
Joseph Rouleau, and Rodrigue by
Robert Savoie. Julian Budden comments that "this was the first complete performance of what could be called the 1866 conception in French with the addition of the ballet." Several notable productions of five-act French versions have been mounted more recently. A five-act French version was performed by the
Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1983. A co-production between the
Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and the
Royal Opera in London in 1996 used Andrew Porter as a consultant and was a "judicious mixture" of music from the 1866 original and the 1883 revision. The production, staged by
Luc Bondy, was also shared with the opera houses in Brussels, Nice and Lyon. The performance by the Paris cast (March 1996), was conducted by
Antonio Pappano with
Roberto Alagna as Don Carlos,
Karita Mattila as Elisabeth,
Thomas Hampson as Rodrigue,
José Van Dam as Philippe II and
Waltraud Meier as Eboli. It was recorded on
videotape and is now available in a remastered
HD video format. A
Vienna State Opera production, staged by
Peter Konwitschny and performed in Vienna in October 2004, included all of the music excised during the Paris rehearsal period plus the ballet. Patrick O'Connor, writing in the
Gramophone magazine, reports the ballet was "staged as 'Eboli's Dream'. She and Don Carlos are living in suburban bliss, and have Philip and Elisabeth round for a pizza, delivered by Rodrigo. Musically, the performance, apart from the Auto-da-fé scene, has a lot going for it under the direction of
Bertrand de Billy." A
DVD video recording is available. On 17 September 2005 a co-production directed by
John Caird of the largely uncut Paris version in French between the
Welsh National Opera and the
Canadian Opera Company (Toronto) was premiered by the WNO at the
Wales Millennium Center. The performance was conducted by
Carlo Rizzi with
Nuccia Focile as Elizabeth, Paul Charles Clarke as Don Carlos, Scott Hendricks as Rodrigue,
Guang Yang as Eboli, Andrea Silvestrelli as Philippe II, and Daniel Sumegi as the Grand Inquisitor. The production was taken on tour to
Edinburgh,
Oxford,
Birmingham,
Bristol,
Southampton and
Liverpool. It was performed by the Canadian Opera Company in
Toronto in October/November 2007 with a different cast. The production was performed several times by the
Houston Grand Opera from 13 April 2012 until 28 April. The Houston production was conducted by
Patrick Summers with
Brandon Jovanovich as Don Carlos,
Tamara Wilson as Elizabeth, Andrea Silvestrelli as Philippe II,
Christine Goerke as Eboli, Scott Hendricks as Rodrigue and
Samuel Ramey as the Grand Inquisitor. On 10 October 2017, the
Opéra National de Paris performed the 1866 French version (before the ballet was composed) in a production staged by
Krzysztof Warlikowski at the
Bastille. Conducted by
Philippe Jordan, the cast included
Jonas Kaufmann as Don Carlos,
Sonya Yoncheva as Elisabeth,
Ludovic Tézier as Rodrigue,
Ildar Abdrazakov as Philippe II and
Elīna Garanča as Eboli. The performance of 19 October was telecast live to cinemas in Europe and later that evening presented on the
ARTE television channel. The Metropolitan Opera presented the opera in French for the first time on 28 February 2022 in the Modena version in a production by
David McVicar, with tenor
Matthew Polenzani in the title role and French-Canadian
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting. The performance of 26 March 2022 was presented as part of the
Met Opera Live in HD series, with house-conductor Patrick Furrer filling in for an ailing Nézet-Séguin. ==Roles==