cahn

So, three years ago I read Schiller's Don Carlos (in Boylan's translation) and wrote a long post about it, concluding that I didn't think it was All That. At this point

selenak found the post, and I will always be very grateful to her for being extremely kind and gracious to Brash Illiterate American Who Was Wrong On The Internet. Not only did she not yell at me (which, let's be clear, she would have been within her rights to do, I was being kind of an awful illiterate American), she was a fount of knowledge about it all (not least by pointing out to me that Schiller might have had Fritz and Katte in mind, thus eventually leading to almost two years and counting now of amazing Frederick the Great history, but I digress). Anyway, besides that, it became very clear to me (not said in those words, because have I mentioned selenak is super nice?) that I was a total idiot for having an opinion on a play without ever having seen the play performed. That would be like having an opinion on an opera while just looking at the score! (Totally a thing I'd do, haha, I am All About Being Opinionated, but it would also be stupid.)

Now I have finally watched it! It's this one, which appears to be the only one available on Amazon US (there's another non-regie one available via amazon.de which I may spring for at some point...). I lurked around for more than two years waiting for one to show up on amazon, and then when

selenak and

mildred_of_midgard found this one for me and I bought it in January, I was in the tail end of not being able to watch video at all, so it took me half a year to get around to it even then. In the meantime I'd learned a very very small bit of German, and I'm glad I waited until I had that, at least, because it would have been way harder to watch back when I had no German.

Anyway, if I hadn't already apologized profusely to

selenak I'd be doing so now, because this play is fantastic. The production was great in many ways (though odd in others). It's a regie production -- the characters roam around what looks like a maze of (empty or almost-empty) glass-windowed cubicles (some of which have more furniture, etc.) which brings out the claustrophobic and restrictive nature of the court. I was actually actively looking for a regie production because I often find that those, when done well, bring out and sharpen the themes and characters and relationships -- although the flip side is that they often bring out subtext that the author may not have primarily intended.

But yeah, this really hit me hard.

Okay, I'm gonna try this screenshot thing...

-There were a LOT of cuts, which I disliked. I felt like I would have liked more text and less random scenes where various characters walked through the corridors silently or singing little songs to themselves. (They did not cut Posa's scene with the King, lol -- which I complained was really long to read on paper, because I have the attention span of a gnat *facepalm*, but on-screen was quite compelling.) (For those of you who aren't German, my complaint is basically like complaining that Hamlet's soliloquy is long and boring and should be cut. ~~which also I would probably complain about if reading Hamlet for the first time today, what can I say, I am a gnat~~)

-There were definitely some production weird choices, like the first couple of Carlos/Posa scenes were basically... talking heads with a random green-screen background. IDK.

-One big difference between this production and almost every opera production I've ever seen (all of them except the Chatelet) is that Posa and Carlos and Elisabeth were all (relatively) super young (since to be an opera singer who can sing Verdi without totally blowing out your voice you have to be 40/50+) and I really felt like it brought out how all three of them are basically just kids who are in WAY over their heads, and that's part of the tragedy of it all.

-Posa (you knew I was going to tackle him first) - Denis Petkovic - was great. I was not convinced by him at the very start. What can I say, I've been imprinted by all the operatic Rodrigos, and he had a very different look and mien -- let me just say that at one point he swaggers out in sunglasses:

But by the middle I was sold. Posa reminds me a bit of all the engineers I've ever known (including myself, though I don't super count as one), where one has this vision of how the code/product should look, and starts building it, and then it turns out that when this code/product intersects with other human beings it isn't suitable in any number of ways, so then one has to modify one's plans but one still is kind of in love with the original plan and wants to keep as much of it as possible, but sometimes that's just really really not advisable... Anyway, I'm really glad I watched this because Posa was very relatable on screen, is what I'm saying (while when I read the play I spent most of it frustrated at him). And Petkovic was great at showing Posa's progression from "hey, I have a plan!" to "My plan is awesome and I am so cool!" to "...my plan is falling apart" to "okay, wow, this is a disaster."

-My fave was Elisabeth, which is unsurprising given that she was my fave before I watched it too, but I also really liked the actress they had playing her (Johanna Wokalek). I felt like she really brought out both the intelligence of the character / understanding that she was playing a very dangerous game, but also (as I've said before) that she was much younger and in a position of intense weakness relative to Philip.

-Philip (Sven-Eric Bechtolf) I think was good? but not really engaging me? One of the two reviews for this on amazon said he was good, and I was waiting to get the sense of sympathy for Philip that I got for Posa relatively early on, but I didn't quite get there. And also I was really looking forward to the scene where his grief for Posa hardens into the wish to destroy everything Posa loved, but it didn't give me the visceral chills I was expecting. I rather wonder if I was suffering from not being a German speaker, here.

-Alba (Nicholas Ofczarek) and Domingo (?? no idea) were also quite good and I enjoyed their scenes a lot. Alba was particularly good at seeming rather menacing even while rarely doing anything overtly menacing, and Domingo was great at being smarmy, which in my opinion is exactly how both of them need to be. The guys playing Lerma and Feria (no idea) were also great. I loved the scene where everyone is just cooling their feet after the King finds out about Posa's betrayal, worrying about the King and what's going on <3

-I think I understood this while reading, but somehow in the interim I'd totally forgotten that it's Lerma who precipitates the whole disaster, by perfectly reasonably telling Carlos that Posa and the King are in cahoots and he should be wary (which Eboli gets to say in the opera) and I may have yelled at the screen, "Oh nooooooo!" That was pretty cool to be, um, unspoiled for through my terrible memory :)

-oh right I almost forgot Carlos, haha. (Philipp Hauß) He was... kinda shouty. I think I have an image of my head of play!Carlos being less shouty than this, and so I wasn't super taken by him. There was also way less Carlos/Posa subtext than I was expecting (and I think they cut the entire "Call me du!" exchange, bah).

-I did forget Eboli! She was good, though I don't have much to say about her.

-I am Quite Put Out that they cut Elisabeth's scene with Alba and Domingo, because I was really looking forward to that.

-Um yes I am totally obsessed with Posa and Elisabeth, but anyway! I adored all their scenes, but I am freaking out a bit because I've been writing exchange letters for years saying that Elisabeth definitely did not show any romantic feelings about Posa, but here... well... she is rather into him in all their scenes (rather more than she seems to be into Carlos). For example, here's the meet-cute where he first walks in:

and then she kisses him right before saying "Gehen Sie! Ich schätze keinen Mann mehr"!

and I'm left going, "...WAIT a second, when she said 'Mein Herz, Versprech' ich Ihnen, soll allein und ewig Der Richter meiner Liebe sein' ('My heart, I promise you, shall alone and forever be the judge of my love') did she actually mean love for Posa... oh wait, have I been misinterpreting this scene from the beginning??" (I don't think I was, but this... might be going in some sort of AU headcanon for me.)

-They ALSO cut (as far as I can tell, with my awful German and trying to follow along mostly with the English translation) the bit where Posa is all "let me tell you about how awesome the Queen is!!" which I am also Put Out about. Anyway, I got the distinct vibe from this production that Elisabeth was into Posa but Posa was like "eh, whatever, it's part of my Plan that Carlos is in love with you" until that last scene -- when he literally jumps over chairs to get to her when she is not pleased about his terrible plan, which, awwww, I loved this.

-The Inquisitor was a woman! (Elisabeth Orth) She was awesome! I suppose this would be harder to do in an opera. I would so be into genderbent Inquisitor in Verdi too.

-The Inquisitor was the last scene; they CUT the last scene entirely! I am not pleased about this, but given all the other choices (shouty Carlos, overt Posa/Elisabeth and zero Carlos/Elisabeth chemistry, understated Philip) I suppose I can see why.

In conclusion: still don't exactly regret super mischaracterizing Schiller, because the consequences have been so awesome, but rather even more embarrassed about it now :)