Kirill Serebrennikov stages Verdi’s classic – personal role debuts for Asmik Grigorian, Joshua Guerrero and Roberto Tagliavini
The first premiere of the 2024/2025 season, Don Carlo, one of Verdi’s most popular works, will be staged at the Wiener Staatsoper on 26 September 2024.
The production will be directed by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, who made his debut at the Haus am Ring in 2021 with his sensational production of Wagner’s Parsifal. Joshua Guerrero in the title role, Asmik Grigorian as Elisabetta and Roberto Tagliavini as Philipp II will make their personal role debuts in the Don Carlo production. The other roles are also top-class: under the musical direction of Philippe Jordan, Eve-Maud Hubeaux as Eboli, Étienne Dupuis as Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa, and Dmitry Ulyanov as the Grand Inquisitor can be heard for the first time at the Wiener Staatsoper.
ABOUT THE WORK AND THE PRODUCTION
With a few interruptions, Verdi worked on Don Carlo for over twenty years; there are no fewer than seven versions created with the composer’s direct involvement. Italian productions of the five-act work, which premiered in Paris in 1867, gave Verdi the opportunity to make radical rewrites and to recompose entire scene complexes. A condensed four-act version was first presented in Milan in 1884 – it is also the basis for this new Viennese production.
Inspired by a visit to the Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan, director Kirill Serebrennikov places the plot of Don Carlo in a contemporary context. He also drew inspiration for his stage design from this institute, where original artefacts from all eras and cultures are kept, prepared and stored in order to protect them from decay.
Serebrennikov’s examination of this transience opened up another dimension of Verdi’s opera: the knowledge of the transience of man, his passions, his endeavours and his deeds, the flow of time that noticeably or imperceptibly erases and destroys everything man has made. Alongside these two dimensions – the remnants of the 16th century and the present day – there is a third level, an intermediate zone in which past and present intermingle.
The Marquis of Posa also plays an important role in the production, the only figure who is not historically documented and who embodies the Enlightenment and modern man. In Serebrennikov’s production, he plays an activist who addresses the consequences of the overproduction and overconsumption of textiles and clothing.
ABOUT THE LEADING TEAM AND THE CAST
Philippe Jordan conducts his 14th premiere at the Wiener Staasoper with Don Carlo. The work occupies a central place in his career at the Haus am Ring: Back in 2005, he conducted performances of Don Carlo here in Pier Luigi Pizzi’s production, followed by performances directed by Daniele Abbado, and now he will conduct the premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov’s new production on 26 September. He believes that the work’s popularity with audiences is due to Schiller’s original, on which the opera is based, and to the music: ‘Firstly, we are dealing with an incredibly strong subject – Friedrich Schiller was a brilliant playwright, and his Don Karlos, the most important model for this opera, inevitably inspired Verdi to achieve top performances. Secondly, with the Italian version of Don Carlo we have arrived at the already older Verdi. The score therefore not only offers great melodies and a sense of drama, but also a compositional maturity that expresses itself in an unimagined sophistication in the harmony and instrumentation,’ says the conductor.
Kirill Serebrennikov is responsible for the direction, stage and costumes and has paid particular attention to the historical costumes that will be seen in his contemporary production. For him, they symbolise both power and imprisonment: ‘We decided to reconstruct the costumes of the historical actors in an elaborate process. Their costliness and, not least, the time it takes to make and put on these court costumes show the power of the person wearing them. At the same time, however, the wearer’s radius of movement is rigorously restricted. For the powerful in particular, the costume becomes a prison for the body, which is disciplined within it and subjected to court ceremonial. The historical wardrobe is therefore directly linked to the question of power and freedom, and thus to the central themes of this opera. One of the challenges was to maintain absolute historical fidelity.’
The leading team is completed by Evgeny Kulagin (choreography), Ilya Shagalov (video), Franck Evin (lighting), Daniil Orlov (music dramaturgy), Olga Pavluk (stage collaboration) and Galya Solodovnikova (costume collaboration).
ABOUT THE CAST
The Mexican-American tenor Joshua Guerrero embodies the title character in this production, making his international role debut as Don Carlo, whom he sees as a ‘very idealistic man’ in terms of character. Guerrero made his debut as Macduff (Macbeth) at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2022 and has since appeared as Des Grieux (Manon Lescaut) and Luigi (Il Tabarro / Il trittico) at the Haus am Ring. International engagements have taken him to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Royal Opera House, the Dutch National Opera, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Frankfurt Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, among others. In November, he will perform Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Wiener Staatsoper and Don Carlo again in March.
Asmik Grigorian, one of the most renowned singers of our time, sings Elisabetta, and she is also making her personal role debut in this role. The soprano explains in a few words why she is including Elisabetta in her repertoire: ‘Quite simply: because it is beautiful music and Don Carlo is my favourite Verdi opera.’ She recently celebrated great successes at the Vienna State Opera as Turandot, Manon Lescaut, Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Tatjana (Eugene Onegin), Jenůfa and Nedda (Pagliacci) as well as with the soloist recital A Diva is Born, which she conceived herself. She is a regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses and most recently appeared at the Teatro Real Madrid, the Salzburg Festival and the Teatro alla Scala, among others. Her broad repertoire also includes Salome, Rusalka, Nastasia (Die Zauberin), Polina (Der Spieler), Marie (Wozzeck) and Marietta (Die tote Stadt).
King Philip II is embodied by Roberto Tagliavini. He is also making his international role debut at the Vienna State Opera. He has sung in Nabucco, Lucia di Lammermoor, La sonnambula, La cenerentola, I puritani and Carmen at the Haus am Ring. The Italian singer has established himself as one of the world’s leading basses and can be heard regularly at renowned opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Paris Opera.
Dmitry Ulyanov plays the role of the Grand Inquisitor. The Russian bass has already sung at the Paris Opéra, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the ABAO Bilbao Opera, the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, among others. He has already appeared at the Vienna State Opera as the Grand Inquisitor and as the General (The Gambler).
Also singing in this new production are Ivo Stanchev as the Monk, Ilia Staple as Tebaldo, Hiroshi Amako as the Count of Lerma/Herold and Ileana Tonca as the Voice from Heaven.
