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Donald Macleod explores Giuseppe Verdi's "middle period". Verdi often said that he felt he was without honour in his native Italy. Perhaps that's why he accepted another commission abroad. Despite his previous very negative experiences writing for the Paris Opera, it was for the "Grand Boutique" that he agreed to supply a new work. The subject agreed on was Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos. A German play on a Spanish subject - that makes very free with history - prepared for the opera stage by a pair of Frenchmen, and set to music by an Italian, doesn't sound like a recipe for success, but Verdi created from those ingredients one of the great operatic dramas of all time: Verdi's Don Carlos.

Adagio for Trumpet and Orchestra
Gianluigi Petrarulo (trumpet)
Symphony Orchestra of Milan
Riccardo Chailly (Conductor)

Don Carlos, Act II, Sc 2 (Nel Giardin del bello)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Swedish Opera
Alberto Hold-Garrido, Conductor

Don Carlos, Act III (Il Grand Inquisitor!/ Nell'ispano suol mai)
Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Robin Leggate, Tenor (Count of Lerma).
Robert Lloyd, Tenor (The Grand Inquisitor)
Roberto Scandiuzzi, Bass (Filippo)
Bernard Haitink, Conductor

Don Carlos, Act III (Ballet of the Queen)
Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
Claudio Abbado (Conductor)

Don Carlo, Act IV (Tu che le vanita / E dessa... Si, per sempre)
Wiener Phiharmonic
Sena Jurinac, Soprano (Elisabetta)
Eugenio Fernandi, Tenor (Carlo)
Herbert von Karajan, Conductor.