Deutsche Oper Berlin, Season 2025/26
“DON CARLO”
Opera in 4 Acts libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille de Locle based on Friedrich Schiller. Italian version by Achille de Lauzières & Angelo Zanardini.
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Filippo II  LIANG LI
Don Carlo VALENTYN DYTIUK
Elisabetta di Valois CHRISTINA NILSSON
Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa GEON KIM
La Principessa d’Eboli KARIS TUCKER
Il Grande Inquisitore PATRICK GUETTI
Un frate VOLODYMYR MOROZOV
Tebaldo MARIA VASILEVSKAYA
Il Conte di Lerma / Un araldo reale KANGYOON SHINE LEE
Una voce dal cielo HYE-YOUNG MOON
Sei deputati fiamminghi VOLODYMYR MOROZOV, BENJAMIN DICKERSON, PHILIPP JEKAL, PAUL MINHYUNG ROH, BYUNG GIL KIM, NAVASARD HAKOBYAN
Chor & Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Conductor Juraj Valčuha
Chorus Jeremy Bines
Stage Director, Set Design, Lighting Marco Arturo Marelli
Costumes Degmar Niefind
Berlin, 11 January 2026
Brotherhood and liberty versus blind fiery religion. The empty vanity of noble sacrifice, frustrated passionate love and a King who controls the world but not himself. These are the powerful themes of Verdi’s setting of Schiller’s Don Carlos. The music expresses the depths and soaring heights of human emotion and political-religious power. It requires musicians of equal depths and power. On January 11, the Deutsche Oper revived Marco Arturo Marelli’s (Stage Director, Set Design, Lighting) production of this towering opera. The orchestra, very ably led by. Juraj Valčuha, showed power and subtlety, with brass, winds and above all the beautifully played and paced introduction to Filippo’s “Ella giammai m’amo”. Balance, subtle tempi changes and dynamic attention to both the music and the need of the stage gave life to Verdi’s deeply moving music. The unit set, lighting also by Marelli and costumes by Degmar Niefind, all suggested a grandeur and dark austerity. Consisting of dark blocks and walls, and often dominated by a cleverly varied cross of light, it served as an interesting and varied background for the action. Marelli’s stage direction was clear and accurate, with some nods to modern German directorial clichés, such as the spatial separation of closely harmonizing singers in Carlo and Rodrigo’s opening duet, “Dio, che nel l’alma infondere, and the survival of the six Fiamminghi until the very end of the opera. These standard gestures and designed in the first case to show human alienation and also to use the entire stage. In the second to showcase a director’s originality and “improve” a difficult finale, whatever else may be in the score. Fundamentally silly, they are small aberrations and can be excused. However, in the case of Don Carlo there is little excuse for casting singers, whatever their talents, incapable of communicating the music. Unfortunately, this was largely the case at the January 11 performance. A group of talented young singers, many of them current or former interns at the Deutsche Oper Berlin comprised the principle roles, and few of them had the audibility or richness of tone in the middle or low to fulfill the demands of their roles.This repertoire requires a vocal and emotional maturity and only one singer was fully up to the challenge, despite the many competition winners and rising young stars onstage. As Rodrigo baritone Geon Kim was pale and uninspiring, especially in the middle voice and Mezzo Karis Tucker as Eboli, still very young and possessing a promising voice, lacks the flexibility for the Canzone del velo. Her “O don fatele” was simply not to be mentioned in the company of Simionato, Barbieri or Urmana. Soprano Christina Nilsson showed a surprising amount of warmth and color in her last act aria, but immediately reverted to the voice more appropriate to Musetta which she had used most of the evening. It is not so much the voice, as the ability to express depth and breadth of emotion and soar to brilliant high notes both loud and thrillingly soft. She lack the physical maturity and the vocal mastery which Verdi demands in this opera.The King of Liang Li lacks regal heft but had the right color and timbre for the role. He shamelessly overacted in Filippo’s famous aria. Perhaps aware of the many great performances , he unnecessarily sought to express emotions by clutching scenery rather than by honest singing but he can learn with time. As the Grand Inquisitore, however, Patrick Guetti had plenty of voice which very nicely conveyed the ‘dark side’ which the Inquisitore represents. Not always precisely in tune he nonetheless convincingly conveyed the character’s power and menace. Tenor Valenty Dytiuk, on the other hand, stood out in the title role. His ringing high notes were effective and consistent and his messa di voce was pretty. He also has stage awareness and knew how and when to be effective. Don Carlo is a famously ungrateful role but Dytiuk made the most of it. Both the Lerma and Herald of Kangyoon Shine Lee were well sung, but Maria Vasilevskaya’s Tebaldo was not. Hye-Young Moon delivered an accurate but earthbound Voce dal Cielo. The six Fiamminghi, sang together very well but had to wait, often onstage, until the final scene to be shot rather than burned at the stake.The chorus, perhaps reflecting the absence of six men, lacked the volume necessary to represent the gathered Spanish masses in this chorus heavy opera, and the women were messy and occasionally inaccurate. Volodymyr Morozov began and ended the opera as an entirely respectable Frate but the voice is too young to be Carlo V. Photo Barbara Aumuller