In the title role, Diego Torre succeeds with ferocious energy and vocal clarity. It does kick off a little abruptly and establishes the relationships between its characters on the run, but it keeps the running time just under four hours (with one intermission). Opera Australia is presenting Verdi’s four-act version (rather than the original five acts), which begins when Elisabeth and King Philip are already married. The result is a melodramatic soap opera set against the backdrop of the Spanish inquisition.

An unusual love triangle develops, in which Don Carlos does all he can to win back his mother-in-law (now the Queen) for his own. He soon learns that his father, Philip II, King of Spain, has claimed Elisabeth as his own wife. In Verdi’s version, Don Carlos, the crown prince of Spain, is betrothed to marry a French princess Elisabeth de Valois, and has fallen desperately in love with her. Verdi’s opera was inspired by Friedrich Schiller’s play of the same name, which was very loosely based on real historical events in 16th century Spain. In that respect, this remounting of Elijah Moshinsky’s celebrated 1999 production is a triumph. And not only do they have to be superb voices, they have to be perfectly matched for its duets and small ensemble pieces.

It requires five principal singers, and several supporting players, with voices and stage personas big enough to soar above the epic scale of this production which, as Opera Australia has noted in all its advertisements, features 200 people on stage. It demands spectacle and endurance from its cast and orchestra, and it’s notoriously difficult to cast. Verdi’s Don Carlos is not an easy opera to stage.

Don carlos met opera review