Metropolitan Opera Preview: Aida

A new singer debuts in Verdi's grandest opera. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Met ballet corps gets one last dance in Aida.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2018 the Metropolitan Opera.

Verdi's "Egyptian business" complete with a huge chorus and...Kristin Lewis? The soprano takes over the first run of dates of this revival. This is your last chance to experience the worn but  treasured Sonja Frisell production, which is due for replacement in a new production by Michael Mayer. He's the Broadway director who set Rigoletto in a Vegas casino. We here at Superconductor wonder if his new staging will be set at the Sands, the Sahara or the Desert Inn?

The Verdi Project: Aida

Love, warfare, intrigue and oh yes, the pyramids.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A performance of Aida in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza, March 2018.

Throughout his career, Giuseppe Verdi was determined to follow in the footsteps of other Italian composers (most notably Rossini and Donizetti) and conquer the Parisian stage. However, his attempts at grand opera: Jerusalemme, Les vepres Sicilienes and Don Carlos were met with indifference. It was with Aida, set to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni that Verdi would incorporate the lessons of grand opera in a work that combines private anguish and public spectacle and still packs opera houses today.

The Verdi Project: Don Carlos

Verdi's last opera for Paris has a complicated history.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Troubled youth: the not-so-youthful Placido Domingo as Verdi's Don Carlos.
Photo © 1982 The Metropolitan Opera.

After the experience of Un Ballo in Maschera, Giuseppe Verdi found himself increasingly withdrawn from the world of opera. His hiatus was interrupted for the commissioning and premiere of La Forza del Destino, but the problems surrounding that opera did not encourage him to continue composing. However, he received a commission for the Paris Opera, to write a five-act grand opera in French for the 1866. That opera would be Don Carlos, and its genesis would be the most difficult of any major Verdi work.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Guillaume Tell

For the first time in almost a century, the Met takes aim at Rossini's last opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A climactic moment from Act III of Guillaume Tell.
Photo by Ruth Walz for the Dutch National Opera. © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera finally grants the wishes of many Rossini fans (this writer included) with the first new production of William Tell at the theater since 1931. For the first time at the Met, the opera will be sung in its original French.

Superconductor Audio Guide: Tannhäuser

Caught between two worlds, two women and two versions of the same opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The medieval knight Heinrich von Ofterdingen, known to all as "Tannhäuser."
Photo re-coloring by the author.

Wagner planned Tannhäuser to be a grand opera, not a grand, sweeping statement on the nature of duality and the divided self. But it is. On one level, this is the story of a medieval minstrel knight (the title character, pronounced "TAHN-hoy-zer") who tries to win a song contest. However, the hero is doomed from the start, trapped between his lust for the goddess Venus and his chaste love for the pure, saintly Elisabeth. This opera is an examination of the artist in a divided state of ones self, destroyed by the effort to meet all of one's needs at once.

Opera Review: Torching the Warehouse

Loft Opera goes to the mattresses with Tosca.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Police brutality: Scarpia (Gustavo Fuelien) menaces Tosca (Eleni Calenos) in Act II of
Puccini's Tosca at LoftOpera. Photo by Robert Altman © 2016 LoftOpera.

The industrial warehouses that line the Long Island Rail Road tracks on the north side of Flushing Avenue in Bushwick  are used for myriad purposes: art studios, rehearsal rooms, and (presumably) past  underworld activity. This month, the old bus depot at 198 Randolph Street is home to LoftOpera, and the three-year-old company's first-ever foray into the murky waters of grand opera. Thursday was opening night, and the company put its back into mounting a budget-friendly and yet compelling version of Puccini's bloody thriller. This was the second Puccini production for this young company, and a watershed, as Tosca is rife with technical challenges and many dramatic and vocal pitfalls.

Recordings Review: The Glove Slap

Tenor Bryan Hymel revives the French heroic tenor repertory.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Tenor Bryan Hymel.
Photo by Dario Acosta © 2015 Warner Classics.

With his new disc, Héroïque, New Orleans-born tenor Bryan Hymel has drawn off his dueling glove and slapped doubters in the face. Readers of this blog may remember Mr. Hymel from his heroic effort as a replacement Enée in Les Troyens at the Metropolitan Opera on Dec. 26, 2013. That performance in the six-hour five-act Berlioz epic put the spotlight squarely on this young tenor from the South. This first recital disc (released last month on Warner Classics) is more than a labor of love, it is a chance to hear a budding major artist doing what he does best: sing murderously difficult stuff with aplomb, panache and great beauty of tone.

Opera Review: The Fire This Time

The Metropolitan Opera revives Don Carlo.
 by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bass-off: King Philip (Ferrucio Furlanetto, right) pleads with the Grand Inquisitor (James Morris)
in Act IV of Verdi's Don Carlo. Photo by Ken Howard copyright 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.)

Giuseppe Verdi’s operas conquered his native Italy in the 19th century, He then set his sights on Paris, (the center of the operatic world at the time) as his next goal. Don Carlo (originally: Don Carlos) was his third and final attempt at French grand opera. Verdi adapted a play by Friedrich Schiller into a sprawling five-hour examination of the troubled Spanish royal family in the reign of King Philip II. 

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Faust

The Met continues further testing on its "atomic" Faust.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Atomic babe: Marina Poplavskaya in Faust.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

Dez McAnuff's 2010 production of Gounod's Faust re-imagined Gounod's opera about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil as a metaphor for the creation and testing of the atomic bomb in the mid-20th century. While the spare staging featured an elegant Faust and Mephistopheles trading in lab coats for spiffy suits, audience and critical fallout was decidedly mixed.

Opera Review: A Horse of Different Colors

The Metropolitan Opera revives Les Troyens.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pyre woman: Didon (Susan Graham) goes to her death in Act V of Les Troyens.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

Hector Berlioz' Les Troyens is the most ambitious of 19th century French operas. Clocking in at five acts and five hours (counting intermissions) the opera has divided opinion since its premiere, when Paris' Theatre-Lyrique would only present the second half of the opera as Les Troyens à Carthage. The first half, La Prise de Troie was never performed in the composer's lifetime.

A Prince By Any Other Name

The Long Tortured History and Multiple Identities of Verdi's Don Carlos

(This article is heavily indebted to the chapter Don Carlo in Volume III of Julian Budden's authoratative The Operas of Verdi.)

The historical Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias.

Don Carlos, Don Carlo, or whatever you call it is Verdi's darkest opera, a masterpiece that suffered a difficult premiere, heavy cuts, and complex linguistic issues to eventually emerge as one of the composer's most popular operas. But that process took ninety years, from the work's premiere in 1866 to a hugely successful Covent Garden staging in 1956 that gave Don Carlos its much deserved place in the international repertory.

The opera was originally written for the Paris Opera, and was the third "grand" opera that Verdi wrote for that theater. Verdi used a French libretto based on Don Karlos, a German play by Friedrich Schiller. Schiller's drama was based on the life of the son of King Philip II, the "Catholic King" who held Spain in an iron grip. Schiller's hero was a romanticized version of the real infante of Spain, a dangerous, violent prince entirely unsuited to the difficult business of ruling. The real Carlos was locked up by his father, and died in isolation.

On the night before the premiere in 1867, Verdi found out that the five-act opera would run past midnight, making it impossible for Parisians living in the suburbs to catch trains home. The composer was forced to cut the first ten minutes (the scene with the woodcutters) to compensate.


Unfortunately, he left in the scene between King Philip and the Grand Inquisitor. At the moment when the exasperated King bursts out with "Tais-toi, prétre!" ("Shut up, priest!") the very Catholic Empress of France turned her back on the stage. This ensured that Don Carlos bombed in its opening run, joining La Traviata, I Vespri Siciliani and Stiffelio in the ranks of Verdi works that stiffed on opening night.

As the opera moved beyond its Paris run, Verdi made more cuts. First to go was the "La Peregrine" ballet, a requirement for Paris performance that added nothing to the opera's plot, and the insurrection scene that ends Act IV. But even with trims, the new opera failed to catch on.

In 1883, Verdi worked for nine months to prepare a four-act version (now called "Don Carlo"), to a new Italian translation based on the French libretto. Not content with removing the woodcutters, he axed the first act. As a result, Carlo's romanza "Je le vieux" became "Io lo vidi," and was moved from the forests of France to the austere Spanish monastery of San Yuste.

The composer made extensive revisions to his new first act, rewriting the crucial duet between Posa and the King to bring the work closer to Schiller's play and adding some of the excised Act I material to give the work some context. He slashed the scene before the ballet, and revised the prison scene between Carlo and Posa. Finally he changed the ending slightly, cutting out a chorus of Inquisitors and giving the final scene a typical fortissimo ending.

This four-act Carlo proved popular with audiences. But he wasn't done yet. In 1886, Ricordi, Verdi's publishers put out a five-act version of the score, giving opera houses the option of restoring the Fontainebleau scene as a curtain raiser with "Io lo vidi" back in its proper place.

This led to further revisions, a new shortened version of the chorus before "Io lo vidi" and some more tweaks to the later acts. In 1956, an historic production at Covent Garden made this opera popular in its five-act version, and the advent of the recording industry has ensured that multiple revised (and unrevised) versions of the opera have been recorded.

Finally, some conductors (most notably James Levine) have brought back the long-silent woodcutters, claiming that the opening scene in the forest makes more dramatic sense than the abrupt horn-calls that start the opera. The Levine recording with the Metropolitan Opera forces is the only one in the catalogue that includes this scene in its proper place at the start of the opera.

Today, all three versions of Don Carlo/s are performed. The French conductor Bertrand de Billy has performed the original, five-act 1867 version of the opera in Vienna and Barcelona. The Met and Covent Garden favor the 1886, with the first act restored. But there is also an argument to be made for the concise power of the four-act 1883 version, which packs the drama into a tighter structure. It makes the whole opera darker and more oppressive, but in Don Carlos, or Don Carlo,, that's not a bad thing.

Music: The International Language

"All right gentlemen. Let's make it a good one. The world is listening."
--Russell Mulcahy in Highlander 2: The Quickening.

I wanted to step out from behind the curtain for a moment, to express my pleasure and amazement at the international character of the readership of this blog. Although the majority of my page-views come from the United States (I'm based in New York) it is a welcome thrill each time I see a new country pop up on the Google page view tracker.

I know that those pv's just reflect clicks and may not necessarily mean that people in those countries are reading my articles on a daily basis. But it's still exciting to play "world traveller", even as I stay here on the east coast of the United States, pretty much year-round.

So here's a quick shout out to the people in countries that read this blog (so far.) As far as Google can tell, the penguins, scientists, and Shoggoths in the Antarctic aren't reading Superconductor. But anything can happen.

It's an interesting list. Some surprises.

North America: Canada, Mexico, United States.
Thank you. Gracias. Thanks.

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay.
Gracias. Obrigado.

Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
Danke schön. Děkuji. Tak. Kiitos. Merci. Köszönöm. Grazie. Blagodaram. Ačiū. Dank je wel. Tusen tak. Dzienkuje. Obrigado. Spazeba. Gracias.


Asia: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, The Philipines, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.
Xie xie. Dhanyawaad. Arigato. Sagolin. Shokran gazilan. Ca om.

Africa: Egypt, Kenya, South Africa
شكرا لك.  Dankie. Darokomano.

Australia: Australia, New Zealand.
Wiyarrparlunpaju-yungu. Tika hoki.

Thank you all for reading. Kiitos paljon. Now, back to the headphones.

Paul

Opera Review: Little Death Apples

Eve Queler Encores L'Africaine.

We'll say this for librettist Eugene Scribe: 
he came up with an original way to kill off his heroine in L'Africaine.

Wednesday night's one-shot concert performance of L'Africaine was a great evening that may do much to return this neglected work to the regular repertory. Eve Queler celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Opera Orchestra of New York's first performance of that opera, with this performance at Avery Fisher Hall. Chiara Taigi sang the title role, with Marcello Giordani as the explorer Vasco da Gama.

The performance opened with an audio treat: a recording of Richard Tucker singing "O Paradis" at that 1972 performance . For his part, Mr. Giordani did his best to emulate that late tenor, singing the French text with a warm tone and making good use of his vocal reserves throughout the long opera. "O Paradis", in the fourth act was a show-stopper, but that famous number paled next to the intense cabaletta that followed.


Mr. Giordani also showed himself well suited to ensemble work, participating in Meyerbeer's complex, often contrapuntal trios, quartets and sextets. He brought nobility and charm to the role of Vasco, a gallivanting explorer who acts on impulse and repeatedly lands in deep manchineel several times over the course of the evening.

The plot of L'Africaine features Vasco caught between two loves: the noble Inèz (Ellie Dehn) and the title character, Selika. (Selika is not actually African--she is an Indian queen who rules a large island that may be Madagascar.) Ms. Dehn started the evening's vocal fireworks in the first act. She was equalled and exceeded by Ms. Taigi, who presented a formidable, silver-edged instrument that recalled a young Deborah Voigt. Sparks flew between the two divas, especially in their Act V confrontation.

As Nélusko, the slave who is secretly in love with Selika, South African baritone Fikile Mvinjelwa gave a strong performance, making this figure out to be a real, three-dimensional character and not some grotesque, racist parody. His Act III aria with chorus, evoking the legendary African storm gods (and sung just before a typhoon wrecks the ship) was a highlight of the evening. Mr. Mvinjelwa removed his tuxedo jacket before singing the number, giving his performance a "get-down-to-business" feel that matched his sturdy baritone.

Act III of L'Africaine as staged at the Paris Opera, 1864

The finale of the opera, in which Selika commits a sleep-induced suicide by laying down beneath the poisonous boughs of the only manchineel tree in Africa (the trees are native to the Caribbean) is a dream-like, extended sequence for soprano that may have inspired the Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung. Ms. Taigi, (changing into a third gown for her finale) proved to have the vocal stamina to sing this long, difficult scene accompanied by a wordless chorus and Mr. Mvinjelwa.

Throughout this long evening, much joy was to be found in Meyerbeer's music, which sounded familiar, even to an ear that had never heard L'Africaine. That might be because this smash opera, which premiered in 1864 (shortly after the composer's death) was a key influence on the development of Italian and French opera in the second half of the 19th century. The score anticipates beloved operatic moments like the tenor-baritone duet in Don Carlos, the barcarolle from Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and the slumberiffic finale of Wagner's Die Walküre.

As the final bars played, Ms. Queler brought her opera orchestra to a halt for the last time, putting the capstone on a life in music that has brought much joy to New York's opera lovers. Next year, Italian maestro Alberto Veronesi takes over the OONY. He will be building on the foundations of Ms. Queler's efforts.

Heroes Anonymous: Five Recordings of Lohengrin

"I want to know your name. Tell me your name."
--Brenda Strong, Catch Me If You Can

Johan Botha and Emily Magee in Act I of Lohengrin
Photo by Dan Rest, © 2011 Lyric Opera of Chicago

Lohengrin is one of Wagner's most popular operas. The medieval of a maiden in distress rescued by a (literal) knight in shining armor was transformed into a grand opera of mythic proportion, and one of Wagner's greatest successes.

The opera is currently playing at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with South African tenor Johan Botha in the title role. To warm your ears up for the Swan Knight's arrival, here's a list of great recordings of Lohengrin.

This opera has been lucky on disc. That's to say, there are some awesome recordings out there. Here's the top five:

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus cond. Wolfgang Sawallisch (Decca/Philips 1962)
Lohengrin: Jess Thomas
Elsa von Brabant Anja Silja
Friedrich von Telramund: Ramon Vinay
Ortrud: Astrid Varnay
Heinrich: Franz Crass
In and out of print, this live recording was made at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1962, a very good year for opera. Anja Silja was maybe 20 when she recorded this, lending a youthful vulnerability to the role of Elsa. Jess Thomas is in good form as Lohengrin. But the real attraction here is Astrid Varnay as the villainous Ortrud. Her added sprechstimme cackle ("Gott?! Hech-heh!") in Act Two is worth the price of the set alone. Also, this is the best of the four Lohengrins recorded at Bayreuth, taped in front of an actual audience with a minimum of stage noise.


Vienna Philharmonic cond. Rudolf Kempe (EMI, 1964)
Lohengrin: Jess Thomas
Elsa von Brabant Elisabeth Grummer
Friedrich von Telramund: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Ortrud: Christa Ludwig
Heinrich: Gottlob Frick
This is pretty much the "standard" recording of the opera, and it gets re-released about once a decade. Jess Thomas again, this time in a studio setting. He is surrounded by a solid cast, (Grummer is etheral, Fischer-Dieskau and Frick perfect casting) and this captures the Vienna Philharmonic at their peak, right around the time they were finishing the Solti Ring. The recorded sound is excellent and the choral singing, superb. Rudolf Kempe is an exceptional conductor, and this is his finest hour on the podium. A first choice in most record guides, but not my personal favorite.


Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra cond. Rafael Kubelik (DG, 1971)
Lohengrin: James King
Elsa von Brabant Gundula Janowitz
Friedrich von Telramund: Gerd Neinstedt
Ortrud: Gwyneth Jones
Heinrich: Karl Ridderbusch
This is probably my favorite of the bunch--another "unknown" DG recording led by Maestro Kubelik. Except that this one actually got released. The attraction here is the second act, with the pairing of Gundula Janowitz and Gwyneth Jones as Elsa and Ortrud. La Jones has never sounded better, using her demented soprano to great effect in this villainous role.

James King is an effective Swan Knight. The cast is filled out by Bayreuth veterans Gerd Neinstedt and Karl Ridderbusch. Kubelik leads a sweeping, stylish performance of the score.


Staatskapelle Berlin: Daniel Barenboim (Teldec/WBC, 1998)
Lohengrin: Peter Seiffert
Elsa von Brabant Emmy Magee
Friedrich von Telramund: Falk Struckmann
Ortrud: Deborah Polaski
Heinrich: Rene Pape
This is one of only two Lohengrins that opens up the "standard" cut in "In Fernem Land," including the second half of the aria, which was cut by conductor Franz Liszt at the opera's premiere for fear that the singer could not cope with the high range of the part and the extra exposition. This is part of Daniel Barenboim's survey of the ten "mature" Wagner operas for Teldec (now Warner Brothers Classics) and features his signature conducting style.

The cast features Emmy Magee as Elsa (a role she is currently singing in the Chicago production), Peter Schreier as a rich-toned Lohengrin. Falk Struckmann and Deborah Polaski are in fine snarling form as Friedrich von Telramund and his scheming wife, Ortrud. Full review here.



WDR Symphonie-Orchester Köln cond. Semyon Bychkov (Profil-G. Haenssler, 2009)
Lohengrin: Johan Botha
Elsa von Brabant: Adrienne Pieczonka
Friedrich von Telramund: Falk Struckmann
Ortrud: Petra Lang
Heinrich: Kwangchal Youn
This was a welcome surprise, made in Cologne over several concert performances. Johan Botha is at his best as Lohengrin--he is effective in the concert setting and sings with solid tone and understanding of the character beyond being a knight in shining armor. Adrienne Pieczonka is a suitable, dreamy Elsa.

Falk Struckmann is a stentorian Telramund, especially in Act I. However, his scene with Ortrud (Petra Lang) is chilling. Semyon Bychkov's orchestra features exceptionally warm brass playing, recorded at high, but not overwhelming dynamic levels. The chorus kicks ass. A compelling modern alternative, and the first Lohengrin to be released in SACD.

Recording Recommendation: Putting Don Carlos in Order

Released in 1990, the Claudio Abbado/Placido Domingo version of Don Carlos (DG) was the first commercial recording of this opera in its original French. Along with the five-act version of the opera (with the often-cut first act put back in its proper place, complete with "Je le vieux") the hefty four-disc set included the opera's famous "cut" scenes. However, in a classic example of record company weirdness, the cuts were relegated to the end of the fourth disc, as a series of extras. So with CDs or cassettes, it was almost impossible to listen to the full score of Don Carlos in order.

These trimmed scenes are pretty substantial--and include:

• The opening scene of the opera, where a chorus of woodcutters in the forest of Fontainebleau bemoan their hunger, and then encounter Elisabeth de Valois. Verdi cut this on opening night for length, but it puts the events that follow (particuarly Elisabeth's decision to marry her fiancee's father, Philip II) in context, and changes the whole tone of the opera. The Met performs this scene, albeit in Italian.
  
• The "Ballet of the Queen". A spectacular Paris Opera ballet, this has no effect except stopping the action in the middle of Act III for some nice music. Cut when the opera was revised for Italian performance.
  
• The original "Insurrection" scene complete with thundering chorus of inquisitors. Trimmed down in performance, here it is similar to the "Radames Radames Radames" scene in Aida.
  

The Abbado recording is not the best Don Carlos on the market (Domingo's earlier recording with Giulini wins that particular bowl of nachos) but it is a solid enough performance, despite the oddity of an Italian cast and chorus singing in French. Domingo is in excellent form as the Infante, and Ruggerio Raimondi is an imposing King Philip. The ladies are less well served. The late Luciana Valantini-Terrani is a smallish, but competent Eboli. Katia Ricciarelli is past her prime here, a squally, and whiny Elisabeth--but she rebounds in the final act.

The chorus and orchestra of La Scala is in top form, although the whole recording suffers from too much knob-twiddling by the Deutsche Grammophon tonmeister. What's neat though, and what makes this recording worth revisiting is the IPod. If you upload the four CDs into your ITunes, you can then make a playlist and ut all the missing pieces in the correct order. Now, with the Woodcutter's Chorus at the opening, the ballet in its proper, interruptive place, and the Inquisitors back to work shouting at Carlos and Posa, this finally sounds like a proper Don Carlos. And best of all, the missing pieces fit perfectly, unveiling the breadth and scope of Verdi's grandest opera.

DVD Review: Don Carlos at the Chatelet

Luc Bondy's 1996 production of Don Carlos was staged, recorded and filmed at the Chatelet in Paris. These seven performances were blessed with an all-star cast, loaded with important singers either starting their careers (Roberto Alagna) or at the height of their dramatic powers (Karita Mattila, Jose Van Dam.)

After a long delay, this critically important Carlos was finally released on Kultur DVD in 2003. It's not a first choice--the Met DVD from the early '80s with Domingo is better. However, this is the best French-language version of the opera available--and this opera is better in French, the language in which the libretto was originally written.


This recording was made early in Alagna's career, and shows him at his best. He always sounds better in French, and this Carlos is a dramatic highlight of his career. He sings with passion and verve, hopeful during "Je le vieux" and powerful in the character's three showdowns with the King.

Baritone Thomas Hampson branched out into dramatic roles with this complex turn as Posa. Here, clad all in black with stubble and hair extensions, he comes across as part freedom fighter, part rock star. (In the real Spanish court, he'd never last a minute.) His fourth death scene shows how smart a singer Hampson is, the command of emotion and power elevates this Spanish tragedy to the next level of emotional involvement.

As Philip, Jose Van Dam is more baritone than bass. He misses that last bit of bone-shaking gravitas that one expects from this character. He is at his best when vulnerable--the Act IV monologue and the confrontation with the Inquisitor (Erik Halfvarson). When Halfvarson limps onstage, hooded and stooped, accompanied by little bursts of hellfire, the effect makes one wonder: is the King is really having this conversation, or has Verdi's Grand Inquisitor become the demonic figure from The Brothers Karamazov?

Don Carlos only has two major female roles, but they are both in capable hands. Karita Mattila's performance as Elisabeth de Valois is even better on DVD. She is heartbreaking in the Fontainebleu scene with Carlos. But when she arrives in Spain, Elisabeth is a different, transformed woman. She is a Queen, and that is how Mattila plays it--she has become part of the opera's icy, aloof power structure. Waltraud Meier plays Eboli as the fiery opposite. The acclaimed Wagnerian mezzo chews the scenery, and she's vocally unreliable, picking her way slowly through the many pitfalls of "O Don Fatale". But she brings down the house, and importantly, looks the part as the most beautiful woman in Spain.

Thomas Hampson and Roberto Alagna sing the duet from Act II of Don Carlos

Mr. Bondy's production has its share of controversial moments. For once, Elisabeth is on present onstage--asleep for the first half of the King's Act IV monologue. She wakes up and walks out in disgust halfway through. When she re-enters, she nearly trips over the Inquisitor in her haste. The entrance of the Monk in Act II is also effective--the eye is drawn to no less than three different monks (including one who is assiduously scrubbing the monastery floor) before you realize which character on stage is actually singing. It's a great trick, and one that points toward the opera's ambivalent ending, when the forces of heaven and hell intervene to save Carlos from the Inquisition.