Is Don Carlo coming to Cincinnati Opera?

Given that both Cincinnati Opera's general director/CEO Patty Beggs and artistic director Evans Mirageas were in the audience last weekend at LA Opera to see Verdi's epic opera Don Carlo, conducted by Cincinnati's James Conlon, one might wonder whether we might find it on an upcoming Cincinnati Opera season.

Sunday's production directed by Ian Judge in Dorothy Chandler Pavilion had a dream cast that included the fantastic Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra (Don Carlo), Lado Ataneli (Rodrigo), Dolora Zajick (the world's reigning Princess Eboli), Ferruccio Furlanetto (King Philip II), Annalisa Raspagliosi (Elisabeth de Valois) and Eric Halfvarson (The Grand Inquisitor). It was absolutely a knock-out. (The 1884 four-act version was sung in Italian.)

Verdi wrote this opera for Paris, so the opera is rich with spectacle, huge choruses and lavish scenes, yet it is also surprisingly intimate at times. The production would work in Music Hall, but I did not love the scenic design by John Gunter -- basically lots of interchangeable red and black arches painted with bloody, Goya-like images.

Set against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition, the tale (based on Schiller) mixes love and politics, and pits father against son, as Don Carlo becomes a champion of Flanders, a Protestant country. As Verdi expert Mary Jane Phillips writes in the notes, Philip was known as "the Catholic king, obsessed with driving heresy from his lands."

Or, as Evans Mirageas remarked at intermission, "What a wonderful day for an auto-da-fe."

Conlon was absolutely in synch with his singers, and the orchestra captured all the power, intensity and drama of this fascinating opera.

The highlight of Act I, of course, is Eboli's Veil Song. I would have liked more sensuousness in that moment, but Zajick brought rich characterization to her role of Eboli. And what a tenor! Licitra's singing was ardent, expressive and Italianate, reminiscent of a young Pavarotti. His friendship duet with Rodrigo was a showstopper. Ataneli, who has sung in Cincinnati, was truly impressive as Don Carlo's friend and the King's confident.

As the king, Furlanetto captured all the angst of his position as king and father; his scene with the Grand Inquisitor was a portrait of pain and grief. If Raspagliosi's role of Elisabeth was not as complete a portrait, her light soprano voice made a refreshing change from the intensity and power of the others.

Will it come to Cincinnati? We can only wish for a cast as great as this.