Hi All, I'm back in London for the rest of the summer. I have a lot of pictures from my trip home and a brand new camera to play with so expect a few more updates soon. But where to start? I figured a nice welcome back to London with an outdoor Opera on a big screen might be the perfect way to ease my way back into the blog and back into good old rainy and cold London.
So don't want to revisit the old complaints anymore since you can just go read them again in the Don Giovanni post. So I tuned out the traffic and airplane noise which was pretty easy and tried to tune out the people talking and the shushing noises (much harder to do until I moved up closer to the screen after Act 2) and enjoyed the opera Don Carlo.
For those of you that missed this performance or for that matter any performance of Don Carlo this is what happens. Turn away somewhere near the end if you don't want me to spoil the ending.
The opera starts out in the forest of Fontainbleau, France. A marriage was arranged between Princess Elisabetta and Don Carlo the Prince of Spain. They meet, fall in love, and their lives proceed to go immediately down hill from there (continued below).
I suppose that if you have watched any daytime soap opera in the U.S. or just about any show shown on the BBC channels between noon and 8 then you probably can figure out the story line from here. This opera throws in the Spanish Inquisition as a main story line so it's a little different than the daytime stuff.
But what you don't get on the daytime soaps is the singing, the music, the costumes and the whole experience of the performance. There were some absolutely fantastic performances by some extremely superb singers. A duet not to miss is Dio Che Nell'ama from Act 2. Don Carlo (Villazon) and Rodrigo (Simon Keenlyside) were fantastic. For me though the performance of Eric Halfvarson as the Grand Inquisitor was the show stealer. He was perfectly cast for the part, his voice deep and foreboding at times as he struck fear into all the non-believers.
Ok here is the play by play. It's a little long so you might want to quit reading here. One way to make it go faster is to try singing it in your best tenor voice. I did that while I was writing it and it almost brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't wait for the end of my version.
The king, Don Carlo' dad, comes along and decides it's best if he marries Elisabetta. Thanks dad. So now of course the Prince is in love with his mom. Of course all sons love their mums but not like that. Devastated, Don Carlo turns to his best friend Rodrigo and they sing a fantastic duet Dio Che Nell'alma where they basically pledge to bring peace to Spain and France.
Somehow Rodrigo becomes the King's favorite and earns his trust. Meanwhile a lady in waiting who is also in love with Don Carlo learns that he is in love with mom so she swears revenge on the queen. So since this is getting long (remember it's a four hour opera with almost an hour of intermissions) I'll shorten it just a bit.
(borrowed pic from ROH website)
The opera starts out in the forest of Fontainbleau, France. A marriage was arranged between Princess Elisabetta and Don Carlo the Prince of Spain. They meet, fall in love, and their lives proceed to go immediately down hill from there (continued below).
I suppose that if you have watched any daytime soap opera in the U.S. or just about any show shown on the BBC channels between noon and 8 then you probably can figure out the story line from here. This opera throws in the Spanish Inquisition as a main story line so it's a little different than the daytime stuff.
But what you don't get on the daytime soaps is the singing, the music, the costumes and the whole experience of the performance. There were some absolutely fantastic performances by some extremely superb singers. A duet not to miss is Dio Che Nell'ama from Act 2. Don Carlo (Villazon) and Rodrigo (Simon Keenlyside) were fantastic. For me though the performance of Eric Halfvarson as the Grand Inquisitor was the show stealer. He was perfectly cast for the part, his voice deep and foreboding at times as he struck fear into all the non-believers.
Ok here is the play by play. It's a little long so you might want to quit reading here. One way to make it go faster is to try singing it in your best tenor voice. I did that while I was writing it and it almost brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't wait for the end of my version.
The king, Don Carlo' dad, comes along and decides it's best if he marries Elisabetta. Thanks dad. So now of course the Prince is in love with his mom. Of course all sons love their mums but not like that. Devastated, Don Carlo turns to his best friend Rodrigo and they sing a fantastic duet Dio Che Nell'alma where they basically pledge to bring peace to Spain and France.
Somehow Rodrigo becomes the King's favorite and earns his trust. Meanwhile a lady in waiting who is also in love with Don Carlo learns that he is in love with mom so she swears revenge on the queen. So since this is getting long (remember it's a four hour opera with almost an hour of intermissions) I'll shorten it just a bit.
(borrowed pic from ROH website)
Don Carlo wants to kill king. King wants to kill Don Carlo and Elisabetta because of what Eboli (lady-in-waiting) told him while they slept with each other. Apparently it's ok for the King to sleep around. Lots more singing. King who it turns out is basically the puppet of the church confesses he wants to kill son. The grand inquisitor tells him that's a good idea but he should kill Rodrigo first.
(borrowed pic from ROH website)
Rodrigo dies, Don Carlo freaks, Heretics burned, King has regrets, Inquisitor guy calls to the people to back the church and put the king in his place. King relents. Confronts queen. Queen is pure of heart, Eboli confesses to queen and then sent to monastery to live out the rest of her life. Queen not too happy with King for the sleeping around bit, leaves. Turn away now it's almost over. Queen thinks Carlo is dead, he isn't but has only one more song before he gets it. There are a few loose ends at the end but basically the Inquisitor guy is all happy he's won.
I might have missed a few important details and the order isn't quite right but my Italian and my memory are a little rusty
I might have missed a few important details and the order isn't quite right but my Italian and my memory are a little rusty
(borrowed pic from ROH website)
Tebaldo - Pumeza Matshikiza
Elizabeth of Valois - Marina Poplavskaya
Count of Lerma - Nikola Matisic
Countess of Aremberg - Elizabeth Woods
Carlos V - Robert Lloyd
Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa - Simon Keenlyside
Philip II - Ferruccio Furlanetto
Princess Eboli - Sonia Ganassi
Priest Inquisitor - Alexander d'Andrea
Flemish Deputies - Jacques Imbrailo, Krzysztof Szumanski, Kostas Smoriginas,
Daniel Grice, Darren Jeffery, Vuyani Mlinde
Voice from Heaven - Anita Watson
Grand Inquisitor - Eric Halfvarson
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