Ella Taylor / Ressenyes

Verdi's opera of love and politics returns in Nicholas Hytner's production

ixteenth-century Spain resembles a prison or a madhouse in Nicholas Hytner’s Royal Opera production of Don Carlo, first seen in 2008, now on its third revival. Though it has its flaws, it reminds us of the innate bleakness of Verdi’s vision, with its irresolvable clashes between church and state, liberalism and oppression, politics and desire.