Don Carlo

Giuseppe Verdi’s unparalleled masterpiece Don Carlo is presented in a visually stunning new staging by one of Europe’s most genre-redefining directors, Italian Davide Livermore, in collaboration with the renowned design team Giò Forma. Performances will take place from September 8 to October 19, 2024, on the main stage of the Royal Danish Theatre. In the tragic Spanish love triangle involving Don Carlo, his beloved Elisabetta and Carlo’s father Filippo II, the young lovers’ romance must be sacrificed to ensure peace through a forced marriage between Filippo II and Elisabetta.

The tale of love, friendship, idealism, politics and duty unfolds in Verdi’s work against the backdrop of the Inquisition’s brutal and oppressive regime. Davide Livermore and the Giò Forma design team bring the story closer to our times by setting it against the persecution of political opponents under Franco’s dictatorship. In this intense contemporary context, the past merges with a recognisable present in a spectacular set design, blending classic and expressionistic moods inspired by the Spanish painters Goya and Velázquez with lavish and cool aesthetics.

Music: Giuseppe Verdi

Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni og Camille du Locle

Conductor: Jordan de Souza

Director: Davide Livermore

Chorus Master: Steven Moore

Set Designer.: Giò Forma

Costume Design: Mariana Fracasso

Lysdesigner: Antonio Castro

Videodesigner: D Wok

Photo: Miklos Szabo