File:Giuseppe_Barberis_-_Carlo_Cornaglia_-_Giuseppe_Verdi's_Don_Carlo_at_La_Scala.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Librettist
- Joseph Méry Camille du Locle
- Language
- French, also in Italian translation
- Based on
- Don Carlos , by Friedrich Schiller (and incidents borrowed from a contemporary play by Eugène Cormon )
- Premiere
- 11 March 1867 ( 1867-03-11 ) , Salle Le Peletier (Paris Opéra)
via Wikipedia infobox
~39 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Don Carlos is an 1867 five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the 1787 play Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien (Don Carlos, Infante of Spain) by Friedrich Schiller and several incidents from Eugène Cormon's 1846 play Philippe II, Roi d'Espagne. The opera is most often performed in Italian translation, usually under the title Don Carlo.
The opera's story is based on conflicts in the life of Carlos, Prince of Asturias (1545–1568). Though he was betrothed to Elisabeth of Valois, part of the peace treaty ending the Italian War of 1551–59 between the Houses of Habsburg and Valois demanded that she be married instead to his father Philip II of Spain. It was commissioned and produced by the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra (Paris Opera) and given its premiere at the Salle Le Peletier on 11 March 1867.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Don Carlos” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.