Don Carlo is a five-act opera with music by Giuseppe Verdi and libretto in French by François Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle. It is based on Schiller’s Dom Karlos, Infant von Spanien. The premiere of the French version (Don Carlos) took place on 11 March 1867 at Le Peletier del Théâtre de l’Académie Impériale de Musique de París (currently L’Opéra National). The Italian premiere was held at Royal Italian Opera (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London) on 4 June of the same year.

Of Verdi’s operas, this is the one to have undergone more changes, the last one being in 1886, the so called “Modena Version”. Jealousy, betrayal, father-son conflicts and love trio. This is what Verdi took from one of the main exponents of German Romanticism, F. von Schiller, adding drama to the story of king Filippo (Felipe II) and his son Carlos (Don Carlo), who falls in love with his father’s wife, Isabel de Valois (Elisabetta), and whose lives are marked by the Grand Inquisitor. Schiller’s mark is evident in the character’s psychology, highlighted by Verdi’s music and the issues raised: a song to freedom, friendship and love; the tensions between public and private life or between the Church and the State; power and rebellion, passion, idealism, fanaticism or tyranny. Vocally, Elisabetta’s musical moment “S’ancor si piange in cielo” is outstanding.

Subtitles in English and Spanish