The French LP issue of the always-problematic 1971 EMI Don Carlos
ELISABETH: I dare it! Yes!
You know it well: Once my hand
was promised to your son.
Now I belong to you, submissive to God,
but I am immaculate as the lily.
And now there is suspicion
of the honor of Elisabeth . . .
there is doubt about me . . .
and the person who commits the outrage is the king.
Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, cond. Live performance, Apr. 29, 1972
Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded Aug. 18-31, 1971
by Ken
We've actually heard one of the above performances (the one from the 1972 Met broadcast) of Queen Elisabeth's haunting reply to her husband in Act IV, Scene 1 of Verdi's Don Carlos, the scene in King Philip's study -- except that last week, in our ongoing remembrance of Montserrat Caballé, we heard it in its proper place in the scene, which follows the sleepless king's break-of-dawn monologue and his subsequent just-past-dawn beatdown by the Grand Inquisitor, when the queen storms into the study demanding justice for the disappearance of her jewel box, containing "all my treasure, my jewels . . . other objects still dearer to me," which the king proceeds to produce, extracting from it a portrait of his son Carlos and expressing indignation when she "dares to confess" this, and she responds with indignation of her own, and in the deepest sadness as well as anger asserts her integrity and innocence.
[UPDATE NOTE: After the original posting, I rejiggered the pair of opening clips, which originally picked up at the queen's second line, "Ben lo sapete," but now have been made to include her first line, "Io l'oso! Si!" My original thought had been that if we just skipped over that first line, we could get away with just listening to the clips, without the need for all that explanation of what exactly Elisabeth is "daring." My second thought, however, was that no, we really do need to hear the first line.]
We're going to hear the "contextual" version again (this time with the ensuing quartet edited in, and bracketed with the same span from the near-contemporaneous EMI recording conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, with which I've had a difficult, deeply disappointed relationship all its life.
For example, given the already-known sonic homogenizing of U.S. Angel editions of EMI recordings, I invested in a German edition. They did sound better, but not enough (at least in this case) to upgrade my perception of the performance
Above we hear two performances by Montserrat Caballé, mere months apart, of Queen Elisabeth's haunting reply to King Philip in Act IV, Scene 1 of Verdi's Don Carlos after he indignantly charges her with "dar[ing] to confess" that yes, inside the casket that he has presumably had stolen from her, containing (as she has put it) "all my treasure, my jewels . . . other objects still dearer to me," there's a portrait of Prince Carlos (his son, her stepson). I should add, by way of update, that in the original posting I discreetly skipped over Elisabeth's first line, "Io l'oso! Si!," thinking we could just enjoy the clips without having to bother with this lengthy explanation of what exactly the queen is owning up to daring. On reconsideration, though, I decided that no, we in fact need to hear that line to properly register Elisabeth's answering indignation along with the pain with which she asserts her integrity.
We actually heard the first clip, the one rom the 1972 Met broadcast, last week in our ongoing remembrance of Caballé, except that last week we heard it in the context of this chunk of the great scene in Philip's study, which began before dawn as the king soliloquized in his sleepless agony, followed by the brutal beatdown he absorbed in the just-past-dawn visit of the Grand Inquisitor. And we're going to hear that chunk again, this time including the quartet that ensues when Philips accuses Elisabeth outright of adultery and she faints and he calls for help for the queen and in rush Princess Eboli, whom the queen thinks of as her confandant, and the Marquis of Posa, whom the king thinks of as his.
This time, you'll note, we're hearing the 1972 Met performance bracketed with the EMI studio recording conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini (which was probably just being released as the run of Met performances took place), in which not only Caballé but our Posa, Sherrill Milnes, had taken part. It's a recording with which I've had a difficult, disappointed relationship from the time the LPs turned up in U.S. shops, having bought an imported German edition well ahead of the domestic release. Which also means that none of the disappointment can be attributed to the sonic homogenizling Angel ritually performed for the, er, benefit of American music-lovers.
I had such hopes for this recording! Both previous recordings of five-act editions of the opera had serious problems, and EMI was offering us what looked like a plausible cast, under a conductor making his first operatic recording in ages, what with his much-heralded general withdrawal from the world of operatic performance based on his deep-seated disenchantment with that world. And he was conducting an opera with which he had a history, having famously conducted, in 1958, Covent Garden's first five-act Don Carlos.
Even now, feeling an urge coming on me to rant about the recording's unsatisfactoriness, I've gone the extra mile and invested -- after all these years! -- in a CD edition. And I have to say that listening to it again in this format has given me pause. But the more I listen to it, the more I sink back to a possibly refreshed version of the old disappointment, which I experience even in the minute's worth of the opera we hear above. I was surprised, when I dipped back into the 1972 Met performance while working on last week's post, how much more I enjoyed it than I remembered, very much including Caballé's vocally and dramatically focused Elisabeth. I also have to say that even in the context of a house like the Met that's not set up to encourage (allow?) individual conductorial statements, I hear a notably surer grasp of the opera's dramatic progress, and a noticeably more hospitable environment for the singesr to participate in that dramatic progress, with Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, a conductor about whom I didn't have a lot of good things to say back in the day, but whose considerable virtues I have come to value a lot more.
BEYOND THIS I'M NOT GOING TO SAY MORE,
EXCEPT TO NOTE TWO ADD-ONS THIS WEEK
• the same excerpt (well, almost the same) from Giulini's famous 1958 Covent Garden Don Carlos, as noted above the house's first five-act rendering, though with a fair number of cuts to keep the thing within time-manageable bounds. (I expect this performance exists in better sound. I'm working from an old LP edition on a label not known for access to prime sources.) Those cuts include that "haunting reply" of Elisabeth, so I'm afraid we won't be hearing it sung by the fine Dutch soprano Gré Brouwenstijn (hardly known on commercial records except for her highly creditable Sieglinde in the 1961 RCA-Decca Walküre with Jon Vickers, Birgit Nilsson, George London, and Rita Gorr, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf). By the way, you'll note that in this excerpt we hear all the principals except Don Carlos himself, and you may be thinking, well, it's probably some midlist hardly-anybody. In fact, the Don Carloses were: Jon Vickers (Covent Garden 1958), Plácido Domingo (EMI 1971), and Franco Corelli (Met 1972). Not exactly chopped liver. I'm thinking maybe we should be listening to the Elisabeth-Carlos scenes.
• both Caballé performances, from the 1971 EMI recording and the 1972 Met broadcast, of the queen's stupendous Act V monologue, which we know most often in its Italian translation, "Tu che le vanità." For me one of the fascinations of the character of Elisabeth is, given her almost pathological guardedness, how little we know directly about what's going on inside her, especially with the frequent loss of the opening Fontainebleau act, where in her first encounter with (the disguised!) Carlos she's relatively unguarded -- but only "relatively." One thing her life has taught her is the desperate importance of keeping her secrets. (There are, by the way, estimable performances of "Tu che le vanità" by Eleanor Steber and Maria Callas in the March 2010 post "In Verdi's Don Carlos, all paths lead back to the tomb of Charles V," which I spent an inordinate amount of time this week rehabbing -- though not yet, alas, the linked preview post -- from the technical ravages of "improving" blogology. It seems to me we've also heard others over the years, but I'd have to dig those out.)
WITHOUT FURTHER PREAMBLE, THEN, LET'S
PROCEED WITH TODAY'S DON CARLOS PROGRAM
Don Carlos: Act IV, Scene 1, Elisabeth-Philip scene
(from the Grand Inquisitor's exit through the Quartet)
[The GRAND INQUISITOR starts to leave.]
KING PHILIP: My father, may peace be restored between us.
GRAND INQUISITOR [continuing to move off]: Peace?
KING PHILIP: Let the past be forgotten!
GRAND INQUISITOR [at the door, as he leaves]: Perhaps!
KING PHILIP: The pride of the King withers before the pride of the priest!
[ELISABETH rushes in and throws herself at the KING's feet.]
ELISABETH: Justice! Justice, sire!
Justice, justice, justice!
I have faith in the integrity of the king.
In your court I am cruelly treated,
and outraged by mysterious, unknown enemies.
The casket, sire, where I kept
all my treasure, my jewels . . . other objects
still dearer to me,
they have stolen from me!
Justice, justice!
I claim it of Your Majesty!
KING PHILIP: What you're looking for, here it is!
[He produces the casket from his desk.]
ELISABETH: Heavens!
KING PHILIP: May it please you to open it.
[She refuses.]
Well then, I'll open it.
[He breaks open the casket.]
ELISABETH [aside]: I feel like I'll die.
KING PHILIP: The portrait of Carlos!
You don't find any words?
The portrait of Carlos!
ELISABETH: Yes.
KING PHILIP: Among your jewels?
ELISABETH: Yes.
KING PHILIP: What! You dare to confess that to me?
ELISABETH: I dare it! Yes!
You know it well: Once my hand
was promised to your son.
Now I belong to you, submissive to God,
but I am immaculate as the lily.
And now there is suspicion
of the honor of Elisabeth . . .
there is doubt about me . . .
and the person who commits the outrage is the king.
KING PHILIP: You speak to me too boldly!
You think me weak
and seem to defy me;
weakness in me
can turn to fury.
Tremble then,
for you, for me!
ELISABETH: What is my guilt?
KING PHILIP: Perjurer!
If so much shame has overflowed my cup,
if by you I was betrayed,
I swear it before heaven,
blood will flow!
ELISABETH: You make me feel pity.
KING PHILIP: Ah! The pity of an adulterous consort!
[She faints. PHILIP opens a door.]
KING PHILIP: Help for the queen!
[Enter PRINCESS EBOLI and the MARQUIS OF POSA.]
PRINCESS EBOLI [to herself, on seeing ELISABETH unconscious]:
Heavens! What have I done? Alas!
MARQUIS OF POSA [to PHILIP]: Sire!
Half the world is subject to you;
could you be then the only one in your vast empire
whom you are unable to command?
PHILIP [to himself]: Oh, accursed by the fatal suspicion,
work of a devil -- a devil from hell!
EBOLI: I have ruined her! I have ruined her!
Oh fatal remorse!
PHILIP [continuing his bitter reflectons]: No!
EBOLI [consumed in bitter self-recrimination]: I have committed . . .
PHILIP: No!
EBOLI: I have committed . . .
PHILIP: She has not sullied . . .
EBOLI:. . . a damnable crime.
PHILIP: . . . her plighted troth.
EBOLI: I have ruined her!
PHILIP: Her proud bearing tells me so.
EBOLI: I have ruined her!
POSA [to himself]: The hour for action has struck,
the dread lightning has flashed in the sky!
The time for action, etc.
If a man must die for Spain,
I will bequeath her a happy future!
Let a man die for Spain!
EBOLI [overlapping]: I have ruined her!
Fatal remorse! I have ruined her!
PHILIP: This woman has not been unfaithful to me!
POSA: I will bequeath her a happy future!
[They continue in this vein.]
ELISABETH [regaining consciousness]:
Oh heaven, in tears and grief
everyone has forsaken me, o Mother!
EBOLI [overlapping]: O misery!
ELISABETH: I am a stranger in this land . . .
I have no further hope on earth!
EBOLI [overlapping]: Remorse, fatal remorse!
[CONCERTED PASSAGE: in which, singing all together, not in unison but in disjointed phrases, each continues his/her train of thought, the characters being set down in order of entry into the ensemble.
PHILIP: No, she has not tarnished her sworn vow --
she has not been unfaithful to me.
POSA: At last the hour for action has struck,
the ominous lightning has flashed in the sky!
EBOLI: I betrayed that noble heart!
I shall die of it, I shall die of the grief!
ELISABETH: Oh, alone and a stranger in this land,
ah! there is no further hope on earth for me --
everyone, alas!, oh mother,
every single soul here has forsaken me!
I have no more hope, ah!, save in heaven!
In heaven alone have I any hope!
EBOLI: I have betrayed that noble soul, oh woe!
Oh remorse, I shall die of it!
Oh, vain remorese -- if I may not find forgiveness
either upon earth or yet in heaven!
PHILIP: No, she has not sullied her plighted troth!
This woman has not been unfaithful to me!
She has not been unfaithful to me, ah no!
to me she wasn't!
Ah, accursed be my suspicion,
that devil, that wicked devil!
POSA: If a man must die for Spain --
I shall bequeath her a happy future!
Should a man have to die for Spain --
I shall leave her happy days, etc.
Let a man die --
I'll know how to bequeath her
a legacy of happy days!
Cesare Siepi (bs), King Philip II; John Macurdy (bs), Grand Inquisitor; Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Grace Bumbry (ms), Princess Eboli; Sherrill Milnes (b), Marquis of Posa; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, cond. Live performance, Apr. 29, 1972
Ruggero Raimondi (bs), King Philip II; Giovanni Foiani (bs), Grand Inquisitor; Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Shirley Verrett (ms), Princess Eboli; Sherrill Milnes (b), Marquis of Posa; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded Aug. 18-31, 1971
Boris Christoff (bs), King Philip II; Michael Langdon (bs), Grand Inquisitor; Gré Brouwenstijn (s), Elisabeth; Fedora Barbieri (ms), Princess Eboli; Tito Gobbi (b), Marquis of Posa; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Live performance, May 12, 1958
AND NOW TO QUEEN ELISABETH'S MONOLOGUE
Don Carlos: Act V (IV), Orchestral introduction; Elisabeth, "Tu che le vanità"
Scene: The monastery of San Yuste. ELISABETH enters slowly, lost in thought. She approaches the tomb of Charles V and kneels.
ELISABETH: You who knew
the vanities of the world
and enjoy in the tomb
profound repose,
if they still weep in heaven,
weep for my sorrow,
and bear my tears
to the throne of the Lord.
Carlos will come here. Yes!
Let him leave and forget forever.
To Posa I swore
to watch over his days.
Let him follow his destiny;
glory will trace it.
For me, my day
has already reached its evening.
France, noble land,
so dear to my verdant years!
Fontainebleau! Toward you
my thoughts spread their wings.
There God heard my vow
to love for eternity,
and that eternity lasted
only a single day.
Amid you, lovely gardens
of this Iberian land,
if Carlo should ever
tarry in the evening,
may the turf, the brooks,
the fountains, the woods,
the blossoms sing of our
love in harmony.
Farewell! Farewell, bright golden dreams,
lost illusion!
The knot is cut,
the light is snuffed out.
Farewell! Farewell again, verdant years!
Yielding to cruel pain,
the heart has just one desire:
the peace of the tomb!
You who knew etc.
Ah, lay my tears
at the feet of the Lord.
Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, cond. Live performance, Apr. 29, 1972
Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded Aug. 18-31, 1971
AGAIN, HOW WE WORKED OUR WAY THROUGH
THE DON CARLOS SCENE IN KING PHILIP'S STUDY
"Preview: "I still see her looking in silence at my white hair" -- King Philip, in Don Carlos" (1/26/2013)
"Verdi's King Philip -- a man in crisis" (1/27/2013)
"Preview: Every day is a good day for an auto-da-fé" (3/9/2013)
"The pride of the King withers before the pride of the priest!" -- King Philip, in Don Carlos" (3/10/2013)
"Preview: Poor King Philip receives yet another unwelcome early-morning visitor" (3/15/2014)
"Verdi's Queen Elisabeth demands justice from King Philip but gets something else" (3/16/2014)
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