GIUSEPPE VERDI
DON CARLO
URSULA GÜNTHER
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL GRAND OPÉRAS Don Carlos, composed for the World Exposition of 1867, is in many respects an unusual work, possibly Verdi’s greatest and certainly his most ambitious, since he wanted to score the triumph in Paris which he missed with Jérusalem (1847), Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855) and the revised Macbeth (1865). Don Carlos exceeds all other Verdi operas in the complexity of its action, the amount of music composed for it (about as much as Trovatore and Traviata together) and the wealth of the materials that remain: an autograph from 1867 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale), two partial autographs from 1872 and 1883 (Archivio Storico Ricordi, Milan), working libretti in various stages and letters from the composer’s estate (Sant’ Agata), documents and letters from the Paris Archives nationales and the Opéra, which also owns the copy of the autograph (with the final changes), drafts for the ballet, an incomplete scene for the title figure and the material for chorus, orchestra, soloists, conductor and ballet master for the world première (11 March, 1867). DMITRY ULYANOV as GRANDE INQUISITORE
All this makes it possible to follow the changes and cuts during the Paris rehearsal period from 1866/67, together with the change to the Philipp-Posa duet in 1872 (set to an Italian text for Naples) and the fundamental major revision in 1882/83, in which the first act was cut and long sections of acts 2-5 newly composed. The action, based primarily on Schiller’s 1805 dramatic poem Don Carlos, is more complex than usual for Verdi. It presents the whole range of human feelings and passions, from the most sublime to the basest in a historical context, so that the most intimate human emotions and problems are linked tightly with timeless political and religious ambitions. Verdi undoubtedly wanted to put Meyerbeer’s grand opéras in the shade with Don Carlos. However, he also exceeded their length, resulting in organisational complications which initiated deep and overhasty cuts, even before the première and then shortly after it. So that the audience could catch the last train to the Paris suburbs, Verdi
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KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV
WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN? KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV ON WORKING ON DON CARLO
Kirill Serebrennikov made his début as director and costume and set designer at Vienna State Opera in 2000 with Wagner’s Parsifal. At the time, he was still subject to arbitrary treatment by the Russian government, which refused to let him travel abroad, threatened him with with imprisonment and only allowed him to work by live video. He managed to leave Russia shortly after the full escalation of the Russian attack on Ukraine, and has since directed numerous films, plays and operas in western Europe. Most recently he directed the world première at the Ruhrtriennale of his play Legende, based on motifs from the life of the Georgian film director Sergei Parajanov. He arrived in Vienna in mid-August to direct Verdi’s Don Carlo. Sergio Morabito as the production’s dramaturge documented Serebrennikov’s thoughts on approaching the score here.
“We subjected our costume replicas to processes of destruction and erosion as if they really had survived five centuries.” Verdi doesn’t make the director’s life easy. It’s difficult to stage his operas rationally, and there’s a serious risk of finding yourself at a conceptual dead end. A masterpiece which is as compact and appealingly structured throughout as Don Carlo almost speaks for itself, resisting a whole range of modern production techniques. As a director, I was accordingly confronted by, and am facing, a major challenge. The following consideration became the key to my concept. Schiller himself once described the piece as “a family portrait in a princely house.” This means we need to look at the historical and social setting of his story and his characters. But I had to find my own artistic access to this for the opera to be genuine theatre, and not a “concert
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WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN?
in costume”, as we describe opera performances with static staging and lack of dramatic interpretation throughout. And this meant I had to dramatise the costumes themselves. We decided to reconstruct the costumes of the historic actors in an elaborate process. The official costumes of the historical originals of the characters in the piece – Philipp II of Spain, his son Don Carlos, Elisabeth, the French princess engaged to Carlos, who was then claimed by his widowed father, princess Eboli, and the mysterious monk presumed to be Carlos’ grandfather, Charles V – are documented in a number of contemporary full-length portraits in the 16th century. Naturally, these portraits and their depictions are primarily statements about power. The power of the person wearing the costumes is shown by their costliness, and not least by the time needed to create and put on this extremely elaborate court dress. Everything is about the wearer of the costume, and about power. At the same time, the freedom of movement of the wearer is severely restricted. The costume becomes a physical prison for those in power, imposing discipline and the constraints of court ceremony on them. The historical costume is directly connected with the question of power and freedom, which are the central themes of the opera. Together with the costume designer Galya Solodovnikova we launched a major research project in which we studied many sources for the history of costume in the 15 th century before we spent another whole year on actual production of these “museum pieces” in collaboration with the wonderful workshop of the Vienna State Opera. One
challenge was to not only reproduce the external appearance of the originals, but to actually build the costumes from the ground up, staying absolutely true to the historical reality, from smallclothes to undergarments to hoop skirts and hose to all the accessories, ribbons, gloves, pearls, feathers and other appliqués, jewellery, orders, weapons, and – naturally – footwear. In the process we experimented with almost obsolete weaving, sewing, embroidery, finishing and dyeing techniques. This is the first time that I’ve worked on reconstructing historical costumes in the opera. However, this historical reference is only one of many levels in my production. Because we’re presenting these costumes in a contemporaneous context. One of my strongest impressions when I was travelling in Japan was the visit to the famous Kyoto Costume Institute, which houses over 13,000 original items from all eras and cultures. I asked for a guided tour of the complex, which looks unimpressive from the outside. However, once inside the warehousing, research, restoration and exhibition rooms I felt as if I’d been catapulted into the 23rd century. The work is carried out at hi-tech computer workstations with futuristic light fittings, the surface of the walls is protected against UV radiation, dust, moisture and all other damaging environmental influences, all of it to protect the most fragile items, the ultrasensitive fibres and textures, some of which have to be stored in temperature-controlled compartments. The archived textiles may only be touched with white gloves, which are also specially manufactured. Even so, you feel the risk to the objects physically, precisely because everything humanly possible is done here to pro-
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