For the ninth time, Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo will open the new opera season at La Scala in Milan on December 7th. Yet, assures maestro Riccardo Chailly who will direct it, it will be something new for those who will assist. Because «every time I study it I find something new», said the musical director, something that will surprise and intrigue music lovers.
But also thanks to the reading given by the director, Luis Pasqual: «It is an opera that talks about power, but Verdi always shows us this power behind the scenes, never in its official capacity. And it is precisely this point of view that I also tried to report”, explained the director, aided in his work by the set designer Daniel Bianco, who created the scenes, and by Franca Squarciapino, who created the costumes.
A “dream” cast
And then there is the cast, which the superintendent of the Milanese theatre, Dominique Meyer, defines as dreamlike: Francesco Meli as Don Carlo, Anna Netrebko as Elizabeth of Valois, Michele Pertusi as Philip II, Elīna Garanča as Princess of Eboli, Luca Salsi as Marquis of Posa and Ain Anger as Grand Inquisitor. Protagonist of no less importance is the Teatro alla Scala Chorus directed by Alberto Malazzi.
Why Don Carlo for the premiere at La Scala? «Because it is one of the great operas of the world repertoire», Meyer replies simply, satisfied with the work done, to which the Scala audience responded enthusiastically, sending the Scala box office to a sold out position not only for the premiere of Sant’Ambrogio , but also for all seven performances scheduled until January 2nd.
A Don Carlo for Milan
Performed for the first time at the Paris Opéra in March 1867, Don Carlo was staged in Milan a few months later, but the version taken up by Chailly for this premiere is the one prepared by the composer for La Scala in 1884. The opera it then inaugurated the La Scala season in 1868, 1878, 1912, 1926, 1968, 1977, 1992 and 2008.
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