Don Carlos

In the organizer's words:

The young Carlos, son of Philip II of Spain, is promised Elisabeth de Valois of France as his bride and - a rare stroke of luck for arranged marriages - the two of them actually fall in love with each other on their very first meeting. But before they can even comprehend their happiness, they receive news that the king would rather do justice to raison d'état himself and marry Elisabeth. And that is what happens: the bride promised to him becomes Carlos' stepmother!

The absurd situation in the royal family as well as the political situation throughout Europe between the bloodily suppressed revolt in Flanders, the Inquisition and the burning of heretics in Spain and the call for "freedom of thought" (i.e. freedom of religion) pose an existential challenge to Philip's regency. Should he have his own son, who is in league with the rebels and in love with the queen, executed, as the Church demands? And can he save the kingdom of the departed Charles V if he chooses Rodrigo Posa, of all people, an intimate friend of Carlos who is fighting for freedom, as his closest advisor, supposedly the only sincere person?

With Verdi's "Grand Opera" in French, we are balancing out the series of long Sunday afternoon opera performances, in which so far only works by Richard Wagner have been shown, with an opera of equal weight by his Italian antipodean. And it is thematically and historically European through and through! Musically and scenically, the Hagen production of Verdi's great Don Carlos should be in no way inferior to our Wagner productions of recent years. That is a promise!