Thursday, January 18, 2018

It's Called Don Carlo For a Reason

FFS, LA Opera's web page for next season's Don Carlo production is disgraceful.

Here's the graphic, which is of the guy playing Rodrigo....the way he looked about 25 years ago:


I guess that's Ramon Vargas in the lower-left-hand corner.

And the text is just as bad:


Yeah, we all know that former-tenor Domingo sells more tickets than Vargas, but wow. This is really insulting and a distortion of the opera.






8 comments:

CruzSF said...

Are you sure that's not Don Carlo at the upper left? Ii might as well be.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Guy in the monk's robe is Emperor Charles V, Philip II's father, who abdicated and became a monk. He is referred to early in the opera and in some, not all, stagings, he appears at the end of the opera.

Robert Gordon said...

But the more serious issues here are that LA Opera is omitting the first act, and using the clumsy and inaccurate Italian translation. If you want a translated libretto, at least translate into the language of the audience. Singing Don Carlos in Italian (except in Italy) is the sin against the holy spirit.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Omitting the first act is a terrible, terrible sin.

Mike A. said...

After watching the star-studded (Kaufmann, Tezier, Yoncheva, Garanca, Abdrazakov) Don Carlos in Paris Opera last October, I'm not too keen on this Don Carlo. However, this cast is almost a repeat of the Don Carlo at Wiener Staatsoper (all the same male roles: Vargas, Domingo, Furlanetto).

You can see that performance in entirely on YouTube.

Part I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfEmCkD2w5g
Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eweJV1qmPEk&t=2405s

My friend and I watched that together, and she commented that this sounded like Don Carlo being sung by elderly people. I agree! ;)

Lisa Hirsch said...

We had a great Don Carlo here in 2016. Crap production, great singing from five of the leads (Fabiano, Kwiecien, Pape, Krasteva, Silvestrelli) and merely very good from Martinez. Silvestrelli sounded somewhat worn, but solid, and he was a terrifying Grand Inquisitor, where it's not unreasonable to sound a little old.

Sacto OperaFan said...

Yikes! Another uninteresting season on the main stage. Don Carlo is my favorite Verdi opera, but after SFO's production a few years back, I can't imagine this one topping it. It's the only opera that calls to me from Los Angeles.

Are the European opera stars boycotting California? I'm beginning to wonder. They aren't singing in SFO or LAO that's for sure.

Cheers!

Lisa Hirsch said...

I've actually got three operas to see in LA: Satyagraha, Hansel und Gretel, and Clemenza, which it is possible I have never seen.

About European singers: we're five hours past NY. It is a very long trip for them and they can get paid better in Europe.