Don Carlos
opera by Giuseppe Verdi / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don Carlos is an opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed to a libretto in the French language by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry. It was based on a famous German play called Don Carlos, Infante of Spain by Friedrich Schiller. Schiller’s story is based on the true story of the life of Carlos, Prince of Asturias (1545-1568) who was promised that he could marry Elisabeth of Valois, but then his father,Philip II of Spain, changed his mind and married her himself. It was part of the peace treaty ending the Italian War of 1551-1559 between the Houses of Habsburg and Valois.
The opera was first performed at the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra in Paris on 11 March 1867. It has five acts.
Don Carlos was written for performance in Paris. This has made a problem for the reputation of the opera, because it was tradition in France to write very long operas. They always included a lot of ballet music as well as the singing. Verdi’s opera was in five acts, and when it was performed in other countries it was too long for people’s tastes, so many cuts were made, including, at first, the whole of Act I. This is a great pity, because a lot of the music in Act One is very important, with tunes which also come later in the opera. Since the beginning of the 20th century most of the music of Act I is usually performed. There have been many different versions performed, with different parts of the opera cut. When the opera is sung in Italian it is called Don Carlo.