If you are looking for an English-language, four-act version of Don Carlos, this is for you. But I doubt you are. Andrew Porter’s translation is quite good, and when it can be understood (when the men sing, mostly) it brings out the drama in this superb score. But since there probably will never be another English version of this on disc, why not give us the full, five-act opera (in one of its many manifestations)? It’s a small point, however: this is still for those who specialize.
The performance is good but replaces none of the competition. Julian Gavin is a fine Carlos, singing with nuance and ardency, with plenty of ping and energy in the voice, although more soft singing during his crucial duets with Elisabeth would have been welcome. William Dazeley’s Posa is the strongest member of the cast. His sound may be lighter than we’re accustomed to (i.e., Milnes, Cappuccilli, Gobbi), but he dominates whatever scene he’s in and is quite moving in the Prison scene.
The darker men’s voices are also impressive. John Tomlinson’s Grand Inquisitor shakes the heavens in his interview with the Philip of Alastair Miles, who elsewhere is in solid voice in a rather sad, lonely, close-to-broken rather than vicious reading of the role. Clive Bayley as Carlo V intones imposingly.
The women are a problem. However artful, these are not really Verdi voices. Janice Watson has the vocal stature for Elisabeth but lacks the warmth and the line. Her farewell to her lady-in-waiting lacks pathos, although she does manage a certain longing in her final duet with Carlos. She only owns about four consonants, however, and that somewhat impedes her performance. Mezzo Jane Dutton’s Veil Song is genuinely poor and graceless, but her “O don fatale” takes fire. In between, she’s serviceable or better, but you long for, say, Shirley Verrett.
Conductor Richard Farnes leads with a wonderful understanding between the work’s private and public moments, and if his Opera North Orchestra does not play with the tonal beauty of many others, it does at least make the rafters ring: the terrible chord during the Posa/Philip confrontation comes across as the shocking threat it actually is.
I wish I had enjoyed this performance more; it and all of the artists are thoughtful and involved, but the competition is simply too strong. Regarding the four-act version alone, I can recommend wholeheartedly the Karajan/Freni/Carreras on EMI; the five-act version in Italian gets a superb reading under Claudio Abbado on Myto (also with Freni and Carreras). And of the other versions, it is hard to compete with names like Caballé, Domingo, Bergonzi, Ghiaurov, Talvela, Christoff, Verrett, Bumbry, et al. But if you insist on English, well, good for you.
