Ferruccio Furlanetto and the Heretic Burning Factory: Don Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera

Elizabeth – This was my first time hearing Don Carlo and I’m starting to become a real Verdi fan. I love the warm rich colors in his music, and while the tempo of this performance was a bit slow, I was very much taken with the music, voices and set of the Met’s current production. Act I opens with a scene in a snow filled forest. Elisabetta, daughter of the king of France, happens to meet Don Carlo, son of the king of Spain (Philip II), for the first time. It is love at first sight and she is relieved as she is to be married to him as part of a peace treaty. The scene is gorgeous. The perspective created by a narrowing path in the snow was striking and enhanced by the tilted stage. The use of real fire throughout the opera created a wonderful balance against the snowy forest, or later, a cold stone monastery or prison.

In Act II the precise layout of the trees in the garden outside the monastery again further enhanced the sense of perspective. The trees also form a triangle on stage and their shadows create further triangles, echoing the triangular situations throughout the story: Carlo/Philip/Elisabetta, Carlo/Eboli/Elisabetta, Carlo/Philip/Rodrigo, Philip/Grand Inquisitor/Carlo, Philip/Grand Inquistor/Rodrigo.

The black, white and red color schemes used throughout the production in costumes and scenery highlighted the stark thinking during the Inquisition. Either one was with the church or against it, evil or good. And if you were on the evil side, the repercussions were a fiery death at the stake or an eternity in hell.

Princess Eboli, in love with Carlo, makes her first appearance in Act II, with a gorgeous song designed to entertain the ladies of the court. Anna Smirnova was wonderful as Eboli. Her voice was rich and full, in contrast to Barbara Frittoli’s Elisabetta who was occasionally hard to hear over the orchestra.

I enjoyed Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s stage presence, but really sat up in my seat when I first heard Ferruccio Furlanetto. His voice simply commands attention, and is easy to listen to. He fills the Met—there is no straining to hear him. Eric Halfvarson was great as the Grand Inquisitor, another singer who commanded the stage and whose deep voice was a joy to hear.

Aside from Furlanetto, the highlight of the evening for me was hearing the duet with Rodrigo and Carlo, Ramon Vargas. This was my first time hearing it, and it brought goosebumps to my arms. Such emotion. I cannot wait to see Don Carlo again, hopefully next year.

Shawn – This was the best production I’ve seen all year at the Met thus far. The Nicholas Hytner production, which premiered at the Met in 2010, is fabulous. The set and costume design, too, by Bob Crowley are spectacular. The foreshortening effect of the set from dress circle is truly arresting to the eye. I had seen the final dress of Don Carlo this year from orchestra and it was impressive but even more so from upstairs. The movement of the set changes and shifts propelled the narrative forward almost seamlessly, especially the Act 2 shift from tomb to pillared corridor in the monastery. The kinetic motion almost never stopped. The flat portal pocked divider that dropped to split the stage and allow the action to continue far downstage, while the large set change occurred behind worked amazingly well. The giant face of Christ being backlit to reveal the burning heretics at end of Act 3 was an absolute show stopper.

Hvorostovsky as Rodrigo was fine. I love his hair. He does seem a bit detached onstage acting wise though. A touch on auto-pilot. I found this with him in Ballo this year as well. But he is striking physically onstage and did not take away from my enjoyment of the show. My ear is very accustomed to a very different kind of baritone singing Rodrigo so it’s useless for me comment further. I’m biased.

Vargas is always solid I find. Maybe no high flying goose bump raising moments but solid.

Barbara Frittoli as Elisabetta seemed to struggle some, while Anna Smirnova as Eboli was one of the more exciting and engaging female performances I have seen this year.

The orchestra under Lorin Maazel felt slow to me. At least too slow for some of the singers to hold and squeeze out some of the extended moments. But I still found the music exhilarating and the slower tempo did allow for some nuance and coloring I had not heard before.

THEN there was Ferruccio Furlanetto and Eric Halfvarson. I have to confess I built our subscription this year around seeing Furlanetto as Philip. We also went to Faust TWICE last year in order to see him do Mephistopheles. I’m kind of a Furlanetto nerd in general. A Furlanettite. (I’m having shirts made.)

In all of my experiences with Furlanetto at the Met, (Faust and Barber last season and Don Carlo this) the difference in his singing quality, volume, and rich fullness of sound is always refreshingly jarring to me. I sit up the instant he opens his mouth. Somebody is really singing for a living onstage (damn it). It’s wonderful and all too rare. He sounds effortless to me yet fuller and richer than anyone on stage. And I find his acting to be specific, excellent and deeply compelling.

How is it that the other principals onstage do not hear Furlanetto’s voice F I L L I N G the house the moment he opens his mouth? Can they not hear the difference? And does that not lead them to ask themselves, “He is filling the house with every phrase he utters, I wonder how it is that he does that? I would like to do that too. Perhaps I’ll ask him.” It boggles my mind. With Furlanetto onstage the difference between what is and what could be if other singers even remotely matched him is both exhilarating and disappointing.

It’s not that you can’t hear the other principals at all it’s just the difference between them and Furlanetto is so dramatic. When I hear him I always find myself thinking, a-ha, THAT’S what it’s supposed to sound like. He absolutely rocks in every way.

Eric Halfvarson too is old school great. He and Furlanetto’s act four duet was the highlight of the evening for me.

I am seriously considering going to London in May to see the same production of Don Carlo with Furlanetto, Halfvarson and Jonas Kaufman, if I can find someone with a private plane I can borrow and a couch I can sleep on. I’ll buy the tickets. And I may even have my “I’m a Furlanettite” shirts made by then. We’ll see. Any takers?

– Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes

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