Tag Archives: Don Carlos

Top ten operas 2022

This was the year that opera houses got back to something approaching “normality” post-pandemic. It’s easy to forget that at the start of 2022, Covid restrictions were still very much in place: visiting Vienna in January, one needed proof of … Continue reading

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Thrills, chills and an immersive auto-da-fé: Konwitschny’s Don Carlos sizzles in Hamburg

Verdi: Don Carlos Staatsoper Hamburg, 30th May 2019 “Beware my Grand Inquisitor!” The Hamburg audience would do well to heed Phliip II’s warning to the Marquis de Posa in Peter Konwitschny’s production of Don Carlos. During the first interval, there … Continue reading

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Swans, severed heads and a deerstalker: 2018 in review

“Wow! That’s some year you’ve had!” was a message written in one of this year’s Christmas cards. “Aiming to top it in 2019?” I’m not sure I have the energy! My outstanding operatic experience of the year was easily Salome at … Continue reading

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Darkness and grandeur in Christophe Honoré’s staging of Don Carlos for Opéra de Lyon

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 … Continue reading

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Gold-plated Don Carlos cast compensates for Warlikowski’s frosty Paris staging

Verdi: Don Carlos *** Opéra Bastille, 28th October 2017 Stéphane Lissner, director of the Opéra de Paris, had one of his greatest successes as general manager at the Théâtre du Châtelet with Luc Bondy’s staging of the original French version of … Continue reading

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