Don Carlo

Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo combines family tragedy and historical panorama. This “Grand Opéra” was premiered in 1867 — and reworked again and again in the following decades. In the four-act Italian version, the abysses of Spanish absolutism open up even more dramatically: arbitrary rule, an emaciated people, fanatical autodafés — and the experience that friendship can be stronger than blood ties. After Schiller's “dramatic poem,” Verdi focuses on the inner ordeal between political duty and personal desire. In the production by Marco Arturo Marelli, this struggle is condensed into an archetypical play. Such a drama requires charismatic voices; here, singers such as Tareq Nazmi as Filippo II, Ève-Maud Hubeaux as Eboli, Adriana Gonzáles as Elisabetta and Nicola Alaimo as Posa can be rediscovered. Najmiddin Mavlyanov takes on the title role. Dan Ettinger, who has already been general music director in Mannheim and Tel Aviv, is conducting at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for the first time.

Opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle based on the drama Don Carlos, Infant of Spain by Friedrich Schiller Premiere of the Italian version by Achille de Lauzières on January 10, 1884 in Milan Premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on October 23, 2011