Don Carlos, Ballet de la Reine: Study score

by Giuseppe Verdi, Howard K. Wolf (Editor)

Verdi's operas are most often represented in the concert hall today by their overtures or 'sinfonias' with very good reason. A number of them are symphonic gems in their own right. The operas he composed for the Paris stage give us another view of his orchestral virtuosity with their sumptuous ballet scores. The Ballet de la Reine (La Peregrina) was given its premiere with the world premiere of the opera Don Carlos itself in Paris by the ThEAtre ImpErial de l'OpEra in the Salle Le Peletier in March 11, 1867 under the baton of FranCois George-Hainl. The ballet, which was staged during Act III, was originally choreographed by Lucien Petipa, the brother of the renowed Marius Petipa. This is a newly edited and engraved score prepared by Howard K. Wolf in consultation with all of the available authoritative manuscript and printed sources.

Genres: Music

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Fullest artistic form of operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer, included La Traviata in 1853, Aïda in 1871, and Otello in 1887; people credit him with raising the genre.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, mainly a Romantic, most influenced the 19th century. Houses frequently perform his works throughout the world, and some themes transcended the boundaries of the genre and long took root in popular culture:
* "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto
* "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco , and
* "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song).

Masterworks of Giuseppe Verdi used a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom, and people sometimes criticized tendency toward melodrama, which dominates the standard repertoire a century and a half.

Reviews

[E7boehm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good historic editions front end essays not considered.
good pre opera libretto.

[Raúl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay que considerar que, al igual que el original de Schiller, esta obra fue sometida por el compositor a diversas reescrituras, hasta llegar a contabilizar cinco versiones. Aparte de suprimir los ballets "obligados" por su estreno en París, Verdi suprimió el acto primero, situado en Francia, en el que se encuentran Don Carlos e Isabeld e Valois, y tras jurarse amor, descubren que Felipe II, padre de Don Carlos, finalmente será quien se case con Isabel. Y finalmente, Verdi volvió a recuperar ese primer acto, creación original de los libretistas, ya que no se encuentra en Schiller.
Lo cierto es que, pese a que los libretos operísticos no suelen ser tan redondos como sus originales cuando estos provienen de clásicos, en este caso el libreto de Méry y Locle, dejando aparte la gran y abrumadora música de Verdi, es mucho más equilibrado, medido, claro y con una progresdión más afinada que el original de Schiller. Tome elementos de la obra alemana para reordenarlos cambiendo por ejemplo el final, mucho más sasfactorio que el teatral, o logrando en la elección de los espacios y lugares donde dispone la acción una mayor efectividad que la del dramaturgo alemán.