Lots of gorgeous Zeffirelli bling-bling
I imagined Franco Zeffirelli must have jumped for joy when he learned he was going to stage his very own auto-da-fé. Lots of jeweled crosses, gold reliquaries, and other religious bling-bling. His lavish, gargantuan sets tend to shift the atmosphere of the opera to its religious-political meaning, somewhat muting the romantic tragedies that take place between four of the five principals (I'm not counting the relationship between Rodrigo and Don Carlo as romantic). Another thing that weakens the romance angle is the exclusion of the Fontainebleu scene. This "Don Carlo" is performed in its 1884 Italian four-act version.
Well, there's a third reason why the romance doesn't really come through. Luciano Pavarotti's Don Carlo seems grumpy rather than lovelorn. He absentmindedly calls Elisabetta (the passion of his life), 'Isabella' at least twice. However, he is vocally in top form. The opening-night cracked note, which made international headlines in 1992 is not in this recording. As always, the other principals rotate around a stationary Pavarotti like lesser moons around a greater moon.
As Elisabetta, Daniela Dessi makes a decent impression, although she is not as regal a queen as was Mirella Freni in the 1982 Metropolitan Opera recording. Someone must have told her that they were looking for a drama queen rather than a Spanish queen. Actually that worked out quite well in the Act IV study scene when Elisabetta confronts her monstrously paranoid husband. Dessi's voice was pleasant, although a bit threadbare at its top.
Luciana d'Intino began very tentatively with the 'Veil Song.' Princess Eboli's guaranteed show-stopper garnered only a bit of polite applause from the La Scala audience. She did begin to warm to her job later in the midnight garden, although her confession to the queen in Act IV fell dramatically flat. Once she was alone in Phillip's study and well-launched into "O don fatale," her voice opened up quite beautifully.
Paolo Conti as Rodrigo acted his critical duets with Don Carlo and the King very well, but his voice weakened and sharped as the evening drew on. His vibrato seemed very open and unsteady for such a young singer.
Of course, the real reason I bought this La Scala recording was for Samuel Ramey's King Phillip. He is in magnificent voice, almost too virile for an ageing king. The Act IV study scene with Ramey's grieving "Ella giammai m'amo" has few equals. His confrontation with the Grand Inquisitor is Verdi at his finest--two iron men in velvet voices clashing on the fate of the Empire, with the orchestra growling and moaning in the pit.
And speaking of the orchestra, Riccardo Muti's conducted some breathtaking allegros, especially at the beginning of the first and second scenes of the second act (the Queen's garden scene and the auto-da-fé scene). Otherwise it was a very balanced, sonorous evening in the pit.