Sponsored by
Don Carlos, The Lowry, Salford, 03/06/09
A second father–son drama in Opera North's quality week at The Lowry as Don Carlos follows Mozart's Seraglio.
There the similarity ends.
While Seraglio was light and flippant in tone and action, Don Carlos was at an extreme.
It explores King Phillip's struggle with his son Don Carlos over the heart of Elizabeth, daughter of the French king. Phillip has taken her as his wife, while she has declared her love for Don Carlos, who must regard her as his stepmother.
Phillip parades as if he is the supreme power in the land, but of course he is not. That is the Inquisition, and through it, God. Most dramatic of many simply but powerfully constructed scenes sees heretics being burnt at the stake, but ascending over the fires on ladders, as the church has informed them, as martyrs to heaven – the Auto deFe.
This is a company in top form.
The intensity of the action never flags in what is one of Verdi's most demanding works. A high quality night.
Repeating duets maintain the interlocking action and prevent Verdi's setpieces from stalling: Don Carlos and Rodrigo; Don Carlos and Elizabeth; the King and Elizabeth; and father and son. And then a superbly dramatic scene in which Don Carlos and Rodrigo are confronted by Princess Eboli, in love with Don Carlos but fearful of the king's vengeance.
Julian Gavin as Don Carlos and Janice Watson as Elizabeth are the couple never in control of their destiny. Alastair Miles plays the King with suitable inflexibility. William Dazeley as Rorigo brings out some of the best moments from Gavin. Jane Dutton invests the Princess with a fearfulness barely under control.
But it is Gavin and Watson who convince us, despite their powerful status, of the vulnerability of anyone set against the tyranny and supremely vicious stupidity of the church at its worst.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Preston
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 14 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
