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The Guardian, 17 September
2009 |
Tim Ashley |
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Don Carlo
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Photo: ©
Robbie Jack/Corbis |
Nicholas Hytner's production of Verdi's Don
Carlo was hugely admired when it opened in June 2008, so one is left
wondering why, just over a year later, it should have mutated into something
cautious and uninvolving. Its first revival boasts a new conductor in Semyon
Bychkov and a handful of cast changes, most of which, on paper at any rate,
look creditable. Yet the disparate elements fail to coalesce into a coherent
whole.
One problem is a lack of inexorability in Bychkov's conducting. His fondness
for exploring introversion and subtleties of mood, telling in Strauss and
Wagner, works against him in Verdi, where his insights aren't balanced by a
sense of gathering emotional weight or political rage. There are more than a
few moments of slipshod orchestral ensemble, too.
New to the cast are Jonas Kaufmann's Carlo, Marianne Cornetti's Eboli and
John Tomlinson's Inquisitor. Cornetti, hogging the high notes and doing
nothing with the character, is the evening's main vocal drawback. Tomlinson,
on the other hand, scares you half to death with every utterance. And
Kaufmann is outstanding, whether braving the rages of Ferruccio Furlanetto's
tragic Philip, swooning over Marina Poplavskaya's Elisabetta, or getting
political with Simon Keenlyside's finely acted, if undersung Posa.
The musical inequalities make us very aware of the flaws in Hytner's
staging. The central metaphor – that inquisitorial Spain resembled a prison
or a madhouse – seems overstated, and the set is too mobile: it's hard to
suggest oppression or entrapment when walls, pillars and tombs are
frequently on the move. It's by no means a disaster, just a bit of a
disappointment. |
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