Writing | Rehearsals | Première | Later Productions and Revisions
WRITING
The story of the Spanish infante, Don Carlos, had first been suggested to Verdi
in the early 1850s but he rejected it. He had become familiar with the story
as a youth in the Filippo (1783) of Vittorio Alfieri
a writer whom he admired.* In 1865 Giuseppina Verdi wrote to Léon Escudier,
Verdi's Paris publisher saying that, though she loved the country life, 365
days a year were too much. She knew that, although her husband was reluctant
to start writing again, especially for Paris, that once he became involved,
his enthusiasm would return. Escudier, acting on behalf of the director of the
Opéra, suggested the topic again and this time Verdi wrote that Schiller's
Don Carlos was a "magnificent drama", especially if certain scenes were
added. Although he was serving in the Italian Parliament, and he feared his
house might be commandeered during the Austro-Prussian War which was going on
around it, and he was reluctant to work under the difficult conditions in Paris,
he decided to accept the commission.
Verdi had an affinity for the works of Schiller having already used his plays for I masnadieri, Giovanna d'Arco and Luisa Miller. The much more complex Don Carlos presented more of a challenge and would need to be simplified considerably. A number of other versions had already been set as operas including one with a libretto by Piave, Elisabetta di Valois, which Verdi knew. Besides, writing for Paris meant the opportunity to write Grand Opera with its magnificent sets and elaborate stage machinery, large chorus and ballet**, but also, unfortunately, it meant bureaucratic snarls.
Verdi wanted to use as much of Schiller's play as possible, and he also added material from Eugéne Cormon's opera Philippe II, Roi d'Espagne. This includes the whole original first act set at Fontainebleau, Philip's confrontation with the Flemings during the auto-da-fé and Princess Eboli's disguised visit to Carlos's prison in Act IV to help him escape. (In Cormon it is Elisabetta who leads the people into the prison.) He also enlarged the roles of Carlos and Elisabetta to allow for more arias and duets. The result was so long that a dress rehearsal ran over five hours, much too long because of the iron-clad rule that performances had to end in time for people to catch the last trains home. Many cuts had to be made, and the cut sections were lost until recently.***
Although the librettists are listed as Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, Méry was already on his deathbed when work began in 1865. Most of the adaptation was done by du Locle, the son-in-law of the director of the Opéra. Both Méry and du Locle were well acquainted with Schiller's source, César Saint-Real's Don Carlos Nouvelle historique, (1672) .
Verdi composed the first act in Paris but then returned to Italy. With the war going on, Verdi asked unsuccessfully to be released from his contract and reluctantly went back to Paris.
REHEARSALS
Once work began in 1866, Verdi had to coordinate coaching sessions, rehearsals,
costumes and all the other details. The Opéra was a government organization
with all sorts of red tape. After ten weeks of rehearsal, both Verdis were complaining
about the "Tortoises of the Opéra". Giuseppina said twenty-four hours
had been spent in arguing "whether it was more effective for the prima donna
to raise one finger or her whole hand". There were eight dress rehearsals instead
of the two or three normal today. And of course, there were the censors, although
they did not object as much as usual. They found problems with Posa's pleas
for the Flemings but were finally convinced they were no worse than in other
accepted works. Léo Delibes was one of the chorus masters.
PREMIÈRE
Almost nine months after rehearsals had begun, Don Carlos finally
opened on March 11, 1867 in the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opera.
(The Palais Garnier was still under construction at the time.) In the meantime,
Verdi's father had died and he was so depressed he had stopped going to rehearsals.
The Emperor, Empress, ambassadors and other dignitaries were in attendance at
the première. Elisabetta rode a horse across the stage! The opera was
not a success although there were some positive comments. Some said it was mediocre
and a "bloodless, frozen performance". Attendance did pick up and there were
a total of forty-three performances before it was dropped from the repertory
of the Opéra after 1869.
LATER PRODUCTIONS AND REVISIONS
Verdi stipulated that the publisher Ricordi could have the Italian rights to
Don Carlos, but that it must be performed exactly as it was in
Paris. However, the first performance in Italian was at Covent Garden in London
where they rehearsed for only forty days and had a great success. However, unknown
to Verdi, the first act was not performed and there were many other cuts. It
was a great success in Bologna where it was performed uncut and after only a
month of rehearsals! Later productions in Italy ignored Verdi's strictures.
Changes made in Naples necessitated new sections of Italian text which were
supplied by Ghislanzoni.
Verdi soon realized the need for changes and worked on it for many years. Finally, in 1882 he decided to create a four act version that would be more acceptable in other countries. He refused to allow Vienna to produce the opera until the four act version was ready. The revision took nine months. Du Locle and Charles Nuitter were chosen to make the revision but Verdi and du Locle were not on speaking terms at the time**** so Nuitter served as intermediary for all communication between them. Revisions included cutting the Fontainebleau act and putting Carlos's aria into the new Act I. Also cut were the ballet and the Act V chorus of inquisitors. All of the revisions were made to the French text. There is no 'Italian version', only translations. However, the première of the new Don Carlos was in Italian at La Scala in Milan in 1884 and was a great success. La Scala had a new invention, electric lights! Today even the five act version is often sung in Italian. Others have experimented with different mixes of the vast amount of material in the opera; all of it is seldom used.
One of the features of the plot that always bothered Verdi was the appearance of Charles V, first as a monk and then robed as the emperor. He wrote to Nuitter:
Charles V being alive has always jarred upon me. If he is alive, how is it the Don Carlos does not know it? Moreover...how can Philip II be an old man?...We must decide whether it is suitable or not to omit this monk who is half ghost and half man; or whether instead it might not be better to transform the monk into an old colleague of Charles V, long since dead: a monk who could come to pray at Charles V's tomb.
Du Locle replied:
The death of Charles V, which was for a longtime kept hidden, is not a date in history, since for many years he had disappeared from the world's stage on which he had played so large a part....He had his obsequies celebrated with great pomp, attending them dressed in monk's robe, hidden amid the friars of the monastery....For the rest, nothing could be less historical than the whole tale of Don Carlos, and the way it is handled by Schiller".
Thus du Locle was perpetuating one of the myths surrounding Charles V. He wanted him as a deus ex machina in full regalia for the opera.
* Alfieri was a liberal who advocated anticlericalism and freedom of religion and thought. His drama pictured Philip as a tyrant. There is no Princess Eboli, but her husband, Ruy Gómez is an Iago-like villain and Antonio Pérez is a friend of Carlos's.
** The obligatory ballet for Paris takes place in a submarine cave. There are several versions. One had Philip II as a fisherman who defies a sea goddess to capture a prize pearl, Elisabetta. Later the name of the pearl became la Peregrina, a famous jewel actually owned by Philip and later by Napoleón III and then Elizabeth Taylor.
*** Andrew Porter heard about missing pieces in 1969 and: "When I was next in Paris I asked at the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, to see the original orchestral parts of Don Carlos,...and there I found these missing passages. Prising or snipping open the pages that had been stuck down or detached in 1867, I was able to reassemble, line by line, a good deal of the fine music by the mature Verdi which had remained unknown, unseen, for over a century".
**** Verdi had invested money with the Opéra but Du Locle had mismanaged it and Verdi lost a great deal.