Verdi: Don Carlo (In French) - Vanzo, Bonnet, Macaux, Despraz, Bianco; Bruck. France, 1961

$8.95

Listen to a Sample:

Although the names in this cast might not jump out to you immediately, there are a lot of reasons to add this performance to your collection if you are a Don Carlo fan. For one thing, it is a rare performance of the work in French, but using the 1884 version premiered in Milan, not the original Paris version.
Alain Vanzo is superb in the title role as is René Bianco as Posa and Xavier Depraz as Filippo II (the latter treating us to a thrilling Filippo/Inquisitor scene with the help of Jacques Mars.)
Conductor Charles Buck favors slower tempos than I am used to, but I found the approach worked well, helping to bring clarity of text without bogging down the dramatic flow. It would not be my "desert island" interpretation but I still took something new from it.

Vocally, Germaine Bonnet is not really up to the task as Elisabeth.
Although cuts in this opera during the 1960s were fairly common, the ones used in this performance are downright draconian.

In Mono

OD 11948-2