Sunday Classics preview: How Charles V became emperor of the world

Dimitri Hvorostovsky sings King Carlos's recitative ("Gran Dio! . . . ") and the aria "Oh, de' verdi'anni miei" from Act III of Verdi's Ernani. That's the orchestral introduction to [a] tacked onto [b] and [c] in the scene translation below.

Scene: The tomb of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle

The tomb bears the inscription "Carlo Magno." A staircase leads from a large door. Two dim lights, hanging in the center, disclose the king and his confidant Don Riccardo entering stealthily, wrapped in cloaks. Riccardo carries a torch.

[a] Orchestral introduction followed by dialogue
CARLO: Is this the place?
RICCARDO: Yes.
CARLO: And the hour?
RICCARDO: This is.
The league meets here.
CARLO: . . . which conspires against me!
From the assassins' sight
the tomb of Charlemagne will hide me.
And the electors?
RICCARDO: Gathered, they are sifting
the claims of the one to whom is due
the world's most beautiful crown,
the invincible laurel of of the Caesars.
CARLO: I know it. Leave me.
[As Riccardo turns to go]
Wait. If it happens that I am chosen,
have the fire-breathing cannon
in the great tower sounded three times.
You can come down to me;
bring Elvira here.
RICCARDO: And you would wish?
CARLO: No more -- among these tombs
I'll converse with the dead,
and I'll discover the rebels.
[Riccardo leaves.]

[b] Recitative
CARLO: Great God!
These men sharpen the dagger
on the marble tombs to murder me.
Scepters! Wealth! Honors! Beauties!
Youth! What are you?
Boats floating on the sea of the years,
which the waves beat with ceaseless woes,
until, reaching the rock of the tomb,
your name plummets with you into the void!

[c] Aria
Oh, my verdant years'
dreams and false phantoms,
if I believed in you too much,
the spell now disperses.
If now I am called
to the most sublime throne,
like an eagle I will rise
on the pinions of virtue, ah,
and I will make my name
conqueror of the centuries.

by Ken

It's a historical fact that in 1556 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whose reign Wikipedia describes as "the pinnacle of Habsburg power," an empire on which it was said the sun never set, abdicated the throne and retired to the monastery of San Yuste, where he died two years later. We've already visited the emperor's tomb, in last night's preview. It's the setting of both Act II, Scene 1 and Act V (in the five-act version) of Verdi's Don Carlos.

Tonight we meet the emperor as still a relatively young man, King Carlos I of Spain, the first post-moorish king to inherit the thrones of both Castille (via his father, Phillip I of Castille) and Aragon (via his mother, the daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon). In this opening scene of Act III of Verdi's Ernani (1844) we find him waiting for news from the gathering of the imperial electors.

The concert performance in our video clip cobbles the scene's orchestral introduction onto the great recitative and aria in which the king, at a moment of momentous transition in his life, digs into himself to see for himself what he's made of. Note that up to this point in the opera (based on Victor Hugo's play Hernani) we have seen Don Carlo as the villain, a licentious monarch hurling his royal authority at any target that stands in the way of his earthly passions. Here's the complete scene, with the opening:


[1] Leonard Warren (b), Don Carlo; James McCracken (t), Don Riccardo; Dimitri Mitropoulos, cond. Live performance, Dec. 29, 1956


[2] Cornell MacNeil (b), Don Carlo; Robert Nagy (t), Don Riccardo; Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Dec. 1, 1962


[3] Mario Sereni (b), Don Carlo; Charles Anthony (t), Don Riccardo; Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Apr. 10, 1965

[Note: By coincidence, the first two tenors we hear in the tiny role of Riccardo went on to careers in some of the heaviest-weight tenor roles in the repertory. McCracken in particular was a notable Otello and Tannhäuser. Charles Anthony, by contrast, although there is a famous Met broadcast of Donizetti's Don Pasquale in which he sings the legit lyric tenor role of Ernesto, was a "comprimario" tenor all the way, and a genuinely characterful one. By the time he retired, just this past January 28, singing the ancient Emperor Altoum in Puccini's Turandot at age 80 after 57 years at the Met, he had racked up 2927 performances, by far the most of any solo performer in the company's history.]

JUST A BIT LATER . . .


Baritone Renato Bruson sings "O sommo Carlo" at La Scala, with Mirella Freni as Elvira, Placido Domingo as Ernani, and Nicolai Ghiaurov as Silva, Riccardo Muti conducting.

CARLO [looking at the tomb of Charlemagne]:
O great Carlo, more than your name
I want to have your virtues.
I will be -- I swear it to you and to God --
imitator of your deeds.
[To the conspirators]
I pardon all.
[To himself]
I have mastered my desires.
[Leading Elvira to Ernani]
You will be married. Love each other always.

[In the ensuing ensemble, everyone sings the praises of the newly elected emperor except the unforgiving Silva, who still vows vengeance.]

Between our two Ernani excerpts, Carlo has retired to the privacy of Charlemagne's tomb while the league of conspirators he referred to in the dialogue with his aide Don Riccardo meets and, well, conspires. Among the conspirators are all the enemies he has made in Acts I and II, culminating in the swearing of a rousing oath, "Si ridesti il Leon di Castiglia" ("Let the Lion of Castille reawaken"). One by one three cannon shots are heard, and the newly designated emperor emerges from the tomb. A delegation led by Riccardo arrives bearing the formal announcement, and Carlo announces that his first act will be to safeguard the empire by punishing the conspirators. He orders that the commoners be taken to prison, with the nobles separated and designated for execution.

The man known heretofore as "the bandit Ernani" steps forward to identify himself as one of those nobles, and at this point our performance [2] kicks in:

ERNANI: I am a count. I am duke
of Segorbia, of Cardona.
Let all recognize in me
Don Juan of Aragon.
Now I hoped to be the avenger
of my country and my father.
I didn't kill you;
to you I abandon this head --
cut it off, o King.
CARLO: Yes, it will fall along with others.
ELVIRA [falling at Carlo's feet]: Ah! Sire, if you are granted
the greatest of all thrones,
now confound this humble dust
with forgiveness.
Let contempt be your revenge,
which remorse will accomplish.
CARLO: Be quiet, woman.
ELVIRA: Ah no, let it not be.
Heaven spoke through my voice.
Pity is an august virtue.

At this point Carlo stares at the tomb of the great Charlemagne, and we proceed with the excerpt as above.


[1] Leonard Warren (b), Don Carlo; Zinka Milanov (s), Elvira; Mario del Monaco (t), Ernani; Cesare Siepi (bs), Don Ruy Gomez de Silva; Dimitri Mitropoulos, cond. Live performance, Dec. 29, 1956


[2] from "Io son conte"; with "O sommo Carlo" at 1:25] Cornell MacNeil (b), Don Carlo; Leontyne Price (s), Elvira; Carlo Bergonzi (t), Ernani; Giorgio Tozzi (bs), Don Ruy Gomez de Silva; Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Dec. 1, 1962


[3] Mario Sereni (b), Don Carlo; Leontyne Price (s), Elvira; Franco Corelli (t), Ernani; Cesare Siepi (bs), Don Ruy Gomez de Silva; Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Apr. 10, 1965


TOMORROW IN SUNDAY CLASSICS

We see how last night's Don Carlos excerpts and tonight's Ernani excerpts fit together.


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