Grange Park Opera’s production of Verdi’s Don Carlo, directed by Jo Davies, was first seen in 2016 in the company’s previous home in Hampshire. It has transferred well to West Horsley, always allowing that the orchestra – one of Verdi’s largest – will not fit into a country house opera pit so must be scaled back (just eight first and eight second violins are listed).
The chorus and crowd extras seen in some settings of this historical epic must also be reduced. But the drama can thereby become more focused on the five extraordinary lead characters and their mostly frustrated passions, especially in this well-proportioned four-act Italian language version of 1886. Verdi returned to his score, which originated in 1867 as a five-act French grand opera for Paris, several times in pursuit of a satisfying shape and size. Perhaps he never quite achieved that, but Grange Park has chosen the right score, and given it a good production and bold execution.
One key element that just about survives is the dark tinta of the orchestration, although there are only three bassoons (the score requests four plus a double bassoon), in this space and acoustic they make the necessarily gloomy effect, as when conveying the quiet menace of the Grand Inquisitor. The Orchestra of English National Opera under conductor Gianluca Marcianò provided both dramatic impetus and lyrical sensuousness.
The dark colouring of the score is matched by Leslie Travers’ sets. Interiors are dark, wooden panelling, invisible doors noticed only when someone slides in or out through them, walls part to reveal the auto-da-fé. It all feels more trapped in interiors than the libretto asks, so that garden scenes in Act 1 and 2 use the same interiors that preceded them, but make a token tree visible. Height is used well, when the upper walls have four niches each large enough to take several choristers, giving a weight of vocal sound without cluttering the stage floor. Anna Watson’s lighting supports this well, chiaroscuro reflecting the limited illumination characters seem to have into their own powerlessness. In the modern way, Gabrielle Dalton’s dark costumes are historical without affirming any particular period.
Carlos is a curious eponymous hero, an uncertain lover at the outset and unpersuasive military leader at the end, and little more in between. The role is therefore taxing to perform in a way that reflects those limitations, yet evokes some identification and sympathy. Otar Jorjikia’s tenor is not ideally suited to the part, lacking light and shade such that when, after a dry start, he found his voice, he then operated mostly in the mezzo-forte to forte dynamic, in a space which rewarded subtler approaches. He was at his best in that stirring highlight, the tenor-baritone duet with his friend Rodrigo, “Dio, che nell’ama infondere”, but one was never persuaded that Carlo was worth the sacrifice of his friend’s life.
As Rodrigo, Michel de Souza was very strong in voice and manner, the eloquent libertarian unafraid to speak truth to power. No wonder King Philip II takes a shine to this bold critic of his policies. Not that the King was weak, for Matthew Rose supplied his usual imposing stage presence and sturdy vocal commitment. His great soliloquy “Ella giammai m’amò” was a heart-breaking portrait of a man who can command everything but love.
The women were excellent too. The Princess Eboli of Ruxandra Donose, a survivor from both the 2016 cast and its 2019 revival, was especially impressive in Act 3, lamenting her beauty as a “fatal gift” in “O don fatale”. Her earlier Saracen ‘Veil Song’ was not quite as exotic or alluring as its Moorish arabesques required though. As Elisabetta, Elin Pritchard was a regal being, in posture, movement and singing. Here was the loveliest voice, and vocal skill, on display, powerful when needed but never shrill, and with welcome use of subtle mezza-voce elsewhere. No disrespect to Grange Park Opera’s solid standards over many years and productions, but when Pritchard opened the last act with her “Tu che le vanità” we were suddenly in an international opera house. Supporting roles were well taken, led by a scarifying turn from Julian Close as the Grand Inquisitor – virtually a sixth lead and given the unexpected task of cutting Carlo’s throat just before Charles V could spirit him away, which added more muddle to what is always an ambiguous denouement.
Verdi scholar supreme Julian Budden claims “No single opera of Verdi’s has undergone such a dramatic reappraisal as Don Carlos. From being regarded as gloomy, diffuse and musically unequal... it is now considered by many as Verdi’s masterpiece”. Discuss, as the exam papers used to say. For exam prep, best get down to Grange Park Opera’s fine production.
