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Performances

10 Dec 2004

Don Carlo at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

With all of the festivities surrounding the reopening of La Scala, the production of Don Carlo at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was left in the shadows. The company is producing both the four-act and five-act editions, the latter being...

With all of the festivities surrounding the reopening of La Scala, the production of Don Carlo at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was left in the shadows. The company is producing both the four-act and five-act editions, the latter being in the original French language. The following is a report by Elisabetta Torselli of Il giornale della musica:

Si dà a Firenze un bel Don Carlo che recupera le celebri messinscene di Visconti, qui riprese da Joseph Franconi Lee: spettacolo di affascinante inattualità, oramai fissato e forse irrigidito in una serie di magnifici e foschi quadri spagnoleschi, alcuni dei quali peraltro molto ben resistono all'usura del tempo (e inattesa e ben orchestrata citazione dal viscontiano "Senso" quando il pubblico, parte del quale aveva male accolto la lettura di un comunicato dei lavoratori del Teatro del Maggio, è stato poi sommerso da una pioggia di volantini bianchi, rossi e verdi, Viva Verdi ossia Vogliamo una Economia di Rilancio Delle Istituzioni liriche). Lo si dà in due versioni alternate in cinque e in quattro atti: è sostanzialmente l'edizione di Modena del 1886 che reintegra l'atto di Fontainebleau (ma con altre significative aggiunte dalla versione parigina 1867); per cui l'edizione in quattro atti non è affatto la ben nota versione milanese, bensì Modena senza Fontainebleau. Mehta si gode questa partitura straordinaria in tutti i suoi aspetti, quello disinibitamente Grand-Opéra e quello dei colori crepuscolari, luttuosi (impressionante il preludio del quinto atto), arditissimi, con sonorità come sempre sontuose e calde, talora, come nella scena Filippo-Grande Inquisitore, quasi sublimando in lenta e metafisica delibazione le vibrazioni del dramma. Con i suoi centri rigidi e inamabili Fabio Armiliato è purtroppo un Carlo esposto alle contestazioni del pubblico; Barbara Frittoli è un'Elisabetta nobile e struggente ma di talora insufficiente peso drammatico, al contrario della potente Eboli di Violeta Urmana, trionfatrice della prima; Roberto Scandiuzzi, Carlo Guelfi, Paata Burchuladze e Ayk Martirossian si spendono con partecipazione nei ruoli di Filippo, Rodrigo, del Grande Inquisitore e del Frate. Successo vivissimo.

Cast information:

Filippo II — Roberto Scandiuzzi / René Pape [5, 10, 14, 18]

Don Carlo — Fabio Armiliato / Marcus Haddock [5, 10, 14, 18]

Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa — Carlo Guelfi / Lucio Gallo [5, 10, 14, 18]

l Grande Inquisitore — Paata Burchuladze / Ayk Martirossian [18]

Un frate — Ayk Martirossian / Enrico Turco [10, 14, 18]

Elisabetta di Valois — Barbara Frittoli / Adrianne Pieczonka [5, 10, 14, 18]

La Principessa Eboli — Violeta Urmana / Dolora Zajick [10, 14, 18]

Tebaldo — Gemma Bertagnolli

Il Conte di Lerma — Enrico Cossutta

Un araldo reale — Carlo Bosi

Voce dal cielo — Alessandra Marianelli

Deputati fiamminghi — Franco Boscolo, Alessandro Calamai, Calogero Andolina, Joseph Song Chi, Jin Hwan Hyun, Sungil Kim, Evgeny Stavinskiy

Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Direttore — Zubin Mehta

Regia — Alberto Fassini

Scene e costumi — Luchino Visconti

Shows:

Edition in five acts:
03-12-2004, h 19
07-12-2004, h 19
12-12-2004, h 15.30
16-12-2004, h 19

Edition in four acts:
05-12-2004, h 15.30
10-12-2004, h 19
14-12-2004, h 19
18-12-2004, h 19

Don Carlo will be broadcast by Radio 3 on 16 December at 1800 GMT. Click here for details.

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