One of the most “edited” operas is featured on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/11 3:00 p.m.) in a recording featuring a dream cast featured in a 1966 recording performing the five-act version that’s missing only the ballet – or is it?
It’s a tale of lost love, jealousy, and the Spanish Inquisition with Giuseppe Verdi’s 1867 opera “Don Carlo.”
Beginning on a positive note with Don Carlo (Carlo Bergonzi) and Elisabetta de Valois (Renata Tebaldi) embracing their arranged marriage, only to have it taken away from them when Elisabetta is given to Don Carlo’s father, Philip II (Nicolai Ghiaurov).
The situation is further exasperated by the machinations of the jealous Princess Eboli (Grace Bumbry) and the Grand Inquisitor (Martti Talvela), and Carlo’s hesitation to trust his possible friend, Rodrigo (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau), and the result is an afternoon of grand singing and emotion.
Georg Solti conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
After the opera (as hinted above), host Michael Kownacky has programmed a recording of the third act ballet from “Don Carlo” entitle “La Peregrina” which is almost always cut from the opera when it is produced mostly because of time considerations performed by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna with Riccardo Chailly conducting. For good measure, if we have time, we’ll hear the prelude to Act III of “La Traviata” for good measure to close out our time together. This will be performed by Thomas Schippers conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra.
