Verdi: Don Carlos
Published:
COMPOSERS: Verdi
LABELS: WHRA
WORKS: Don Carlos
PERFORMER: Cesare Siepi, Jussi Björling, Robert Merrill, Jerome Hines; Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra/Fritz Stiedry
CATALOGUE NO: 6021
A very important live recording from 1950, in decent sound, of a great performance of Verdi’s finest opera, notable above all for Jussi Björling’s heroic Carlo, but also with a magnificent Cesare Siepi as Philip II. The women are slightly less impressive, but I was stunned afresh by the work’s grandeur. Michael Tanner
Authors
Michael Tanner is a critic for BBC Music Magazine and the opera critic of The Spectator. He is now a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, having lectured in the Philosophy faculty at the University of Cambridge for 36 years. In 2010, he released The Faber Pocket Guide to Wagner.