This is an excellent French Carlo. Vanzo is very fine in the lead role and I enjoyed Bonnet with her sweet voice. I enjoyed the edited version very much as I find longer version a tad tedious. The rest of the cast and conducting is also very fine. A worthy acquisition if you'd like something a little different. Very fine sound.

This set appears to be a concert performance of a condensed version of the Milan (1884) version, using however much of the French libretto from the earlier (1867) version. The singers are all closely miked (including the Voix Celeste in the Auto-de Fe scene) and there are no sounds indicating action on a stage and no applause. It is also heavily cut, though what remains tells the essential plot. In addition, the approach is more theatrical than operatic in the typical Verdi fashion. Conductor Charles Bruch, a strong advocate for contemporary music, keeps the words of dialogue crisply audible and plays down any efforts to add high notes or showboating typical of most Italian-language performances. The total effect is more like a stage performance than a musical one; for all that, the orchestra projects beautifully at moments, particular preludes to scenes and the various repetitions of the "Friendship" leitmotif that Verdi uses.For this reason, the singers are better at performing text rather than building melodic arcs. The effect of this is clearer if one follows the performance with a text of the French libretto. Alain Vanzo does well in a spinto role that is quite different from the lighter, higher-pitched roles at which he excelled. But this version gives him less to do than the other principals. The dark-voiced males, in fact, make much more impact in this performance. Rene Bianco is a warm, engaged Rodrigue who shines in his death scene, and Xavier Depraz delivers a deeply engaged "Elle ne m'aime pas." The female artists are less impressive; as other reviewers have noted, they seem to be (like Vanzo) light-voiced artists attempting some heavy lifting. That said, I found Germaine Bonnet's "reading" of her last-act aria "Toi qui sus le néant" to be an intelligent and fine-grained version of this taxing scene.My only serious complaint (docking one star for it) is for Opera Depot's minimalist presentation of this document. The contents page simply describes which acts are held on which disc. Given that the version is not the usual one for opera-goers and is severely cut, one would expect at minimum that each of the tracks would be identified by the scene, characters, and first lines of the arias etc. included.

This set is from a radio concert that was probably only allotted two hours or so. Consequently, it's more of an extended excerpts performance so the large cuts, unfortunate as they may be, do not reflect accurately French performance tradition. The four act edition is used. We get enough from each act to tell the story at the expense of some famous numbers i.e. the Veil Song is omitted and there are large cuts within certain scenes. Almost all of Act Three is performed with an ugly cut of the passage where Eboli confesses her adultery to Elisabeth.Vanzo sings sweetly as Carlos and Bianco matches him as an unusually mellifluous Rodrigue. Depraz and Mars are terrifying in their confrontation played complete. Bonnet and Macaux both have attractive voices, but are singing parts much too heavy for them. Macaux gets off a decent "O don fatal" though she's very nearly at the end of her tether. Bonnet's final aria is sung intelligently, yet the music won't yield to her more modest resources. Whoever sings the Voix Celeste has a lovely tone and beautiful high notes. Bruce leads what is left of the score diligently. The sound is very clear with no glitches that I heard.For those who love this opera and want to hear a French cast in the original language.

Alain Vanzo était un extraordinaire ténor ;Voix facile ,aigus tranquilles mais percutants.Il savait allier charme et puissance.Une belle leçon de chant

Milan version, with cuts, in French. Although I love the French language studio recording of 'Don Carlos' (Domingo, Ricciarelli, Valentini-Terrani et al) for its fine singing, it was surely a mistake to cast the leads with non-French speaking singers. ('I will deliberately be indistinct, because I don't really know how to pronounce it properly!') What a pleasure in the current performance to hear an entirely francophone cast. Alain Vanzo, as to be expected, superb in the title role. Bianco, Despraz, and Mars all wonderful as Posa, Philippe, and Grand Inquisiteur. Bonnet and Macaux both a bit too light for the roles of Elisabeth and Eboli, and Macaux having some pitch issues, but both totally committed to the drama. Conductor Charles Bruck leads a lively forward moving performance. The sound recording is clear and listenable most of the way through.