[Met Performance] CID:307690



Don Carlo
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, March 11, 1992

Debut : Samuel Cristler


In Italian



Don Carlo (157)
Giuseppe Verdi | François Joseph Méry/Camille du Locle list Italian text as translators?
Don Carlo
Michael Sylvester

Elizabeth of Valois
Aprile Millo

Rodrigo
Vladimir Chernov

Princess Eboli
Dolora Zajick

Philip II
Samuel Ramey

Grand Inquisitor
Sergei Koptchak

Celestial Voice
Hei-Kyung Hong

Friar
Jeffrey Wells

Tebaldo
Jane Bunnell

Forester
Kevin Short

Count of Lerma
John Horton Murray

Countess of Aremberg
Barbara Greene

Herald
Charles Anthony


Conductor
Samuel Cristler [Debut]







Review 1:

Martin Mayer in Opera (UK)

Finally, the Met revived its bargain basement “Don Carlo,” produced during 1970s financial crunch (the stage band offstage to save costumes, for instance) made it dramatically convincing for the first time in my experience. The star was Dolora Zajick as the biggest-voiced Eboli I have heard since (excuse me) Stignani, Vladimir Chernov as a splendidly lyrical Posa, and Samuel Ramey assured Philip II. Aprile Millo sang Elisabetta handsomely, and she has moderated her transports considerably as an actress, but this is an opera in which the characters must relate to one another, and she was much the same with all the protagonists. She also fussed over “Tu the le vanita.” I wish someone would teach sopranos that it is possible to be almost stock still through the whole of that long aria (Maria Callas moved exactly three times, each a small step forward to tighten her grip on the audience). Michael Sylvester was our Carlo, a young American tenor of considerable range, force and musicality, better known in Europe than here, who will be a rival to anyone when he develops a mezza voce.


Levine was listed to conduct, but had the flu, and Samuel Cristler (who had been scheduled to do the work later in the run) made his debut on the Met podium on March 11. He gave a musical performance of some individuality, bright and lively and Hispanic in the garden scene, and monumental in the auto-da-fé. A former cellist, he had the cello really dig into its attack in the prelude to Philip's big aria. His beat was clear, and he really listened to the singers. An impressive beginning.



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