Don Carlo revival fails to completely catch fire

By Mark Pullinger, 13 May 2017

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“Has Health and Safety finally caught up with the Spanish Inquisition?”

Reviewed at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 12 May 2017

Verdi, Don Carlo(s) (5 acts, in Italian)

The Royal Opera

Bertrand de Billy, Conductor

Nicholas Hytner, Director

Bob Crowley, Set Designer

Ildar Abdrazakov, Filippo II

Bryan Hymel, Don Carlo

Christoph Pohl, Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa

Paata Burchuladze, Il Grande Inquisitore

Kristin Lewis, Elisabetta di Valois

Ekaterina Semenchuk, La Principessa Eboli

Andrea Mastroni, Un frate

Angela Simkin, Tebaldo

David Junghoon Kim, Il Conte di Lerma

Francesca Chiejina, Una voce dal cielo

Royal Opera Chorus

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Royal Opera's Don Carlo revival fails to completely catch fire