Don Carlo

Giuseppe Verdi

Don Carlo

Nov 3 - Dec 3

This Production is in the past

David McVicar’s monumental production—created for the Met premiere of the original French version of Verdi’s gripping drama in the 2021–22 season—returns, now sung in Italian and starring an unbeatable cast of dramatic voices. Russell Thomas, one of today’s fastest-rising tenors, takes on the title role, a Spanish nobleman caught between private passion and public duty, sharing the stage with sopranos Eleonora Buratto and Angela Meade as Elisabeth of Valois, mezzo-soprano Yulia Matochkina as Princess Eboli, baritone Peter Mattei as Rodrigo, bass-baritone John Relyea as the Grand Inquisitor, and bass Günther Groissböck as King Philip II. Carlo Rizzi conducts one of the repertory’s most epic works.

Production a gift of Elizabeth M. and Jean-Marie R. Eveillard, †Edwin C. Holmer III, and The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund

Major funding from Rolex

Additional funding from the Hermione Foundation, Laura Sloate, Trustee

Read Synopsis Read Program

Sung In

Italian

Met Titles In

  • English
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Italian

Estimated Run Time

4 hrs

  • House Opens

  • Act I

    70 mins

  • Intermission

    30 mins

  • Act II

    35 mins

  • Intermission

    30 mins

  • Acts III & IV

    75 mins

  • Opera Ends

Cast

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TBA

Performing

Performed

All Dates

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Don Carlo

World premiere: Opéra, Paris, 1867
Verdi’s longest and most ambitious opera offers a profound look at the intersection of the personal and the political spheres. The opera features a number of complex one-on-one confrontations, and the chorus, when it appears, is imposing, most notably in the central auto-da-fé. The grandeur of the score telescopes in Acts III and IV to the individuals, with magnificent and melodically rich solo scenes.

Creators

In a remarkable career spanning six decades in the theater, Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) composed 26 operas, at least half of which are at the core of today’s repertory. Don Carlo’s original French libretto was by François Joseph Méry (1797–1865), a notable Parisian playwright, and Camille du Locle (1832–1903), who completed work on the opera after Méry’s unexpected death. It was based on the 1787 play Don Karlos by German poet, philosopher, and historian Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805). The Italian translation is by Achille de Lauzières (1818­–94) and Angelo Zanardini (1820–93).

PRODUCTION

David McVicar

SCENIC DESIGNER

Charles Edwards

COSTUME DESIGNER

Brigitte Reiffenstuel

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Adam Silverman

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR

Leah Hausman

Headshot of Giuseppe Verdi

Composer

Giuseppe Verdi

Setting

Don Carlo

The opera is set in grim, authoritarian Spain at the time of the Inquisition, c. 1560. While both Schiller and Verdi took significant poetic license with actual events and relationships, most of the protagonists are based on historical models.

Articles

Taking the Lead

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Videos

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Music

With its epic scale, Don Carlo lacks the dramatic concision of Verdi’s later works, while maintaining a unique structure that builds over its five acts. The title role is one of the pinnacles of the tenor repertoire, but the score also features stunning vocal solos and duets for all six of its principal players. Large choral forces appear throughout, reminding us that the entire world is affected by the choices and actions of the lead characters.

Don Carlo