Verdi - Don Carlos [Box set]

NB This is a review of the Ponto recording, a carbon copy of the OR version.

This Ponto recording (John Matheson/London 1972) of the 1867 score (which includes passages cut before the Paris premiere) is a carbon copy of the Opera Rara release, but without the latter's bulky packaging (only a 12-page booklet, helpful though it is). Compared with the Orfeo set of the 2004 Vienna performance of the same score (also released on DVD, a terrible production), the Ponto is preferable, as far as both voice and intonation are concerned: at Vienna, the performers (none of them French) show signs of difficulty coping with the language, not to mention the fact that they are generally below their best. In addition to Robert Lloyd (Monk) and Richard van Allan (Grand Inquisitor), the 1972 mainly French-Canadian cast are more comfortable with the text: Joseph Rouleau (Philippe), Andre Turp (Carlos), Robert Savoie (Rodrigue), Edith Tremblay (Elisabeth), and Michelle Vilma (Eboli). Though Verdi's revisions are superior, much of the music from the original is too memorable to be discarded: the woodcutters scene, the duets (Rodrigue/Carlos, Philippe/Rodrigue, Elisabeth/Philippe, Eboli/Elisabeth, and Carlos/Elisabeth), the masquerade and ballet, the quartet, Emeute, and finale. Minor vocal disappointment comes from Vilma's occasionally blowzy Eboli, and Savoie's slightly wobbly Rodrigue (sounding more bass than baritone, he almost chokes during the trio with Elisabeth and Eboli). The ENO Guide (Number 46) is an excellent substitute for the missing libretto on this set, which (consoling compensation) includes highlights from the revised version but sung in French (Alain Vanzo/1961). If you're on a tight budget (the OR release is too pricey), get this recording (the sound is faultless) with the ENO text (which - in addition to the libretto in French, Italian and English - contains informative articles and editorial notes on textual variants in English).

If you are on a budget and can do without a libretto, this same recording is available on the Ponto label for less than half the cost of this expensive Opera Rara issue.

In sound surprisingly good for a concert performance dating back to 1976, this is an essential purchase for anyone like me who considers "Don Carlos" to be Verdi's greatest work. You have nearly four hours of the original score which was never actually performed, Verdi being obliged to cut it in order to allow Parisians to make the last trains home. Opened up to five Acts with some music you will not have heard before, the main pleasures here are the restoration and inclusion of passages too good to lose and also of hearing mainly francophone (actually mostly French-Canadian) singers demonstrate how well Verdi devised the music to fit the original language.

None of the voices here will cause the aficionado to forsake a preference for the many truly great Verdi singers who have undertaken the six - seven, counting the Monk - big roles in this opera. However, their lack of heft is partially disguised by the elegance conferred on proceedings by their being in French but nothing can disguise the fact that all are to some extent sorely tried by the demands of Verdi's monster score. André Turp's grainy lyric tenor is audibly strained in his opening number and you can hear him struggle in declamatory passages, but he is impassioned, phrases very intelligently and battles manfully and for the most part successfully against the murderous tessitura. Edith Tremblay has a very pretty voice a size too small but again really throws herself into the role of Elisabeth, managing to float some lovely sounds when she doesn't push her voice into shrillness. Robert Savoie's beefy, unwieldy baritone is honest and committed, darker than the normal lyric Rodrigue; at times he sounds on the verge of swallowing his tongue but he just about holds it together, even though at times a fearsome wobble threatens to derail the line. Michèle Vilma has a bigger voice than her colleagues and although like most Ebolis she nearly falls off the coloratura in her first big number she is impressive when chest-beating in "O don fatale", her account vibrant and thrilling, just on the edge of wild. Bass Robert Lloyd declaims nobly as the Monk; Joseph Rouleau is in finer voice than I have ever heard him: rich and imposing as King Philip. Richard van Allan's Grand Inquisitor is grandly sung in iffy French and he sounds too sprightly; nonetheless, the great, central confrontation between him and the King comes off as it must if this opera is to make its impact. Another crucial passage is the final ethereal, otherworldly parting duet between the step-mother-stepson lovers which brings the opera to its heart-rending close; both singers assume a melting mezza voce and make magic before Philip's brutal intrusion, some extra busy music for chorus usually excised and the miraculous apparition of the Monk as Charles Quint, sonorously voiced by Robert Lloyd.

The BBC Orchestra and Chorus under John Mathison acquit themselves creditably despite some flatulent brass and occasional intonation problems in the strings. The conducting and playing are more than adequate and we get the feeling of real ensemble despite this having been only a concert performance. There is no audience noise apart from some polite applause and just a hint of pre-echo in the tape.

The complete opera as originally conceived and premiered in paris in French. i heard the original broadcast on BBC 3 and the repeat also which I tried to tape on a poor quality audocassette. Don Carlo is one of my most favourite operas. As I have only recently been able to buy this recording of that broadcast i waited for it to arrive which it did sooner than expected with perfect quality due to the sellers packaging. The box that the disks are housed in is beautifully designed to complement the opera. The performance is very good and well worth hearing and buying.