Every year, opera fans look forward to December 7—the day when La Scala opens its new season with a guaranteed blockbuster—and we're delighted to bring you to Milan for the 2023 opener: one of Giuseppe Verdi's most assured masterpieces, Don Carlo, with a star-studded cast that includes Michele Pertusi, Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča, and Francesco Meli! Legendary director Lluís Pasqual, co-founder of Barcelona's prestigious Teatre Lliure, created a new mise en scène for the occasion, and maestro Riccardo Chailly leads the note-perfect house orchestra in Verdi's spellbinding score.
A longtime favorite at the world-famous venue since it hosted the premiere of the four-act Italian version in 1884, Don Carlo has been conducted at La Scala by the likes of Arturo Toscanini and Claudio Abbado (who opened the 1968 and 1977 seasons with it), and it is now Chailly's turn to help bring Verdi's beloved drama to life. 16th-century political intrigue and filial conflict hit an opera-worthy boiling point in the libretto based on Friedrich Schiller's historical tragedy, as King Philip II of Spain (Michele Pertusi) suspects his wife Elisabeth (Anna Netrebko) of betraying him with his own son, Don Carlo (Francesco Meli), to whom she had first been betrothed…
Photo © La Scala / Marco Brescia & Rudy Amisano