Great Performances

Great Performances at the Met: Don Carlo (39x13)

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The Met’s production of Verdi’s grand opera, in which love, war, politics, and religion intertwine against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition, stars Roberto Alagna as the conflicted title character; Marina Poplavskaya as Elisabeth de Valois; Anna Smirnova as the scheming Princess Eboli; Ferruccio Furlanetto as the tormented tyrant Philip II; Simon Keenlyside as the heroic Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa; and Eric Halfvarson as the Grand Inquisitor. Critics and audiences greeted this new production and its cast with kudos: “You’ve heard about total theater? This is it.” (Variety); “A clear-cut hit… rarely have I seen an opera audience so unanimously satisfied” (Philadelphia Inquirer); and “Music so glorious not one minute seems superfluous” (Bloomberg). This production uses the five-act Italian version of Don Carlo, which includes the “Fontainebleau Act.” A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, Hytner’s Don Carlo premiered in London in 2008. Hytner brought two internationally acclaimed designers to the Met for the first time with Don Carlo: set and costume designer Bob Crowley, the winner of five Tony awards for his Broadway designs, and Tony-winning lighting designer Mark Henderson who has received five Olivier Awards for his work on the London stage.