The season at La Scala, Italy's biggest opera venue, will begin on December 7 with "a Shakespearean Don Carlo where Verdi will show the behind the scenes and the solitude of power," claims Luis Pasqual, the Spanish director who has signed the mammoth staging of Verdi's masterpiece. "Verdi adored Shakespeare. Don Carlo is an anti-clerical opera about the battle for power." Music director Riccardo Chailly, who will be on the podium on the 7th, describes Russian soprano Anna Netrebko as a "lioness" who will play Elisabeth of Valois and admits, "I am happy to be back on stage for the premiere. Elizabeth's position is tricky. The spectator hears her loneliness and grief." And "tiger" the Latvian mezzo-soprano Elna Garana, who will play the Princess of Eboli. "It's a difficult role because you need two voices. The dramatic method in O don fatale and the bel canto technique in Canzon del Velo". Michele Pertusi will play Philip II and adds that "after nearly forty years of career, it is an honor to open the season with such an extraordinary opera." Francesco Meli, who will play Don Carlo, says, "I remember other sets of great tranquility, but this year, even before the dress rehearsal, I was agitated." While Luca Salsi Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa explains: "Rodrigo is a character who goes outside the box of the story. He struggles to free his motherland, Flanders. I'm not certain that his friendship with Don Carlo is of interest".
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