17 Thursday Dec 2020
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I was looking for my little stash of those tiny bulbs you have on old fashioned strings of Christmas lights, you know what I mean – and instead I found, of all things, the ticket of my first Don Carlo. Continue reading
08 Saturday Aug 2015
Posted in Theatre
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Boris Christoff, Conrad Veidt, Don Carlos, Friedrich Schiller, Giuseppe Verdi, images, Leyla Gencer, Wilhelm von Kaulbach, William Dieterle
For several reasons I was put in mind of Don Carlos, yesterday – both Schiller’s and Verdi’s. So I thought I’d post a few images…
Let us begin with the frontispiece of the first published version in Der Teutschen Merkur, in 1787.
Then a highly romanticized view of the eponymous hero in a 1859 engraving by Friedrich Precht.
About the same time, here is an illustration by Wilhelm von Kaulbach:
Now Conrad Veidt and William Dieterle as Carlos and Posa in the 1924 silent movie Carlos und Elisabeth:
And a 1936 Ukrainian production of the play:
And the opera? Here a 1963 production at La Scala, in Milan, with Leyla Gencer as Elisabeth:
And the great Boris Christoff as King Philip:
I find that both play and opera have fascinating histories… maybe we’ll talk about it, eh?
