A Family Affair

In the recent celebrations of Verdi’s bicentenary at the Deutsche Oper, we have seen the composer coming to terms with his craft (Nabucco) and at the summit of his extraordinary powers (Falstaff); we have witnessed him at his most enduringly popular (La Traviata) and at his most devastatingly cynical (Rigoletto). It is Don Carlo, however, where we see Verdi at his most overtly ambitious. Even if the original five-act-plus-ballet version was ultimately transformed into the more manageable – and more recognisably Verdian – four act version commonly performed today, it remains one of the longest and grandest dramatic statements in Verdi’s corpus.  However, when one looks past the political turmoil and grandly wrought familial melodrama, Don Carlo – as with so many of Verdi’s other operas – succeeds or fails on the strength of a mere handful…