Name: Don Carlo (Italian version)
Start: 2021-10-14
End: 2021-10-14
Location: Folkoperan

Organization

Singer

Bass

Johan Schinkler

Philip II

Fredrik Zetterström

Tenor

Kjetil Støa

Don Carlo

Adam Frandsen

Soprano

Karolina Andersson

Elisabeth of Valois

Mezzo-soprano

Matilda Paulsson

Princess Eboli

Andrea Pellegrini

Baritone

Joa Helgesson

Rodrigo

Carl Ackerfeldt

Philip Björkqvist

The Grand Inquisitor

Stage director

Tobias Theorell

Conductor

Henrik Schaefer

Marie Rosenmir

Lighting designer

Ellen Ruge

Costume designer

Magdalena Åberg

Set designer

Dramaturge

Jürgen Otten

Elisabeth Meyer

MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT

Madeleine Allsop

Isabella (Thibault)

Hairstylist

Theresia Frisk

Makeup artist

Folkoperan

Orchestra

Folkoperans orkester

Swedish

Don Carlo (Italian version)

Stockholm

Sweden

Don Carlo Verdi

Public

Approved

Tobias Theorell och Henrik Schaefer inleder på Folkoperan med att ta sig an ett av de stora operaverken: Don Carlos – Verdis kanske tätaste opera.…

Tobias Theorell and Henrik Schaefer begin at the Folkoperan by tackling one of the great operas: Don Carlos - Verdi's perhaps the densest opera.



 The folk opera renews by breaking the musical conventions around Verdi's music, but also takes the opera closer to Schiller and the dense chamber drama.  Don Carlos becomes as much a political thriller as a family soap where man and the powerlessness of the center are at the center.



 The story takes place in the world's most powerful country;  economically, militarily and culturally but it is also a time of incipient disintegration.  New countries are growing strong, which is driving changes in the world order as well as the view of the exercise of power.  The system is cracking and new movements with demands for equality and political freedom are emerging.  Power takes all means to preserve the system.



 The opera Don Carlos is equally political thriller and family soap and the private conflicts become symbols of the political and social reality.  At the center are King Philip, his son Don Carlos, his young wife Elisabeth and her courtesan Eboli.  Their mutual relations are challenged when the struggle for freedom enters the private sphere.  Orchestrated by the Grand Inquisitor who possesses the real power, the king takes all means to preserve it - at the cost of his child's life.



 Verdi wrote no less than five versions of Don Carlos and in the later versions both ballet and entire acts have been cleared away.  The folk opera therefore chooses to make its own version that approaches Schiller's play.



 - We focus on the drama, which puts the human being at the center and which takes us close to the characters and their highly relevant conflicts.  Don Carlos is a chamber play made for the Folk Opera's stage with fantastic and suspense-building music.  It goes under the skin and shapes some of the great questions of our time, says Tobias Theorell, director and artistic director of the Folkoperan.



 Don Carlos will be Henrik Schaefer's first opera production as the new musical director for Folkoperan.  His vision is that the opera, for the first time in modern times, should sound like when Verdi wrote the piece.  Schaefer creates a romantic orchestra and takes a deep dive into the playing style from Verdi's time.  Playing on time-honored instruments creates a new sound that washes away pure Verdi from preconceived notions.  It gives Don Carlos a new soundscape, which also affects the singers' way of singing. 



 - My goal is to revive a free and sensual music creation that was common in the 19th century, without distancing myself from the technical development of the last 100 years.  I want to shake the musicians and the singers, make them leave their comfort zone and approach the work with curiosity.  By daring to interpret it in a way that the composer had wanted when it was written, it also becomes modern and innovative, says Henrik Schaefer conductor and new musical leader at the Folkoperan.



 Don Carlos premieres at Folkoperan 22 and 23 September 2021 with two singing teams.

English

Don Carlo (Italian version) by Verdi, Thu 14 Oct 2021, From (2021/2021), Directed by Tobias Theorell,, Conductor Henrik Schaefer, Marie Rosenmir, Folkoperan, Stockholm, Sweden

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

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Program, About & Synopsis

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