Verdi: Don Carlos ****
Opéra de Lyon, 17th March 2018
Verdi was obliged to cut music from Don Carlos so the Paris première finished before midnight, allowing the public time to catch the last trains home. Why didn’t he simply request an earlier start time? Beginning at 18:30 and including lengthy set changes, although just a single interval, Christophe Honoré’s new staging for Opéra de Lyon was done and dusted by 23:24. Honoré and conductor Daniele Rustioni present the original French version (as was never performed in 1867) although not quite complete, in a production which hit the spot far more than Krzysztof Warlikowski’s frosty Paris staging last autumn.
Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Eboli) and Sally Matthews (Elisabeth)
© Jean-Louis Fernandez
Read the full review on Bachtrack.