Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 4- Don Carlos

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 6 On the cover In May 1551, Philip II, depicted here, wrote to his aunt, Queen Mary of Hungary: “This [letter] accompanies Titian’s portraits... mine in armor is a good likeness… and if there were more time I would have him do it again.” Philip’s rstborn son, Carlos– the titular character of this production—had been born in 1545, to his rst wife (who died from childbirth complications), and ve years later, Philip would become King of Spain at a time when the nation was at the height of its power. The profound political and personal tensions that drive Verdi’s Don Carlos are largely the stuff of writer Friedrich Schiller’s imagination, though Carlos, considered mentally unstable, did indeed try to kill his father, Philip, and was imprisoned. Philip’s alignment with the Grand Inquisitor, a driving force in the opera, also meshes with historical reality. Sometimes known as Philip the Prudent, the king was a deeply religious Catholic, and even attempted to overthrow Protestant England, over which he had co-ruled as King during the four years that he was married to Queen Mary Tudor. Like his father Charles V, Philip was a generous patron of Titian; the Venetian master painted him several times, starting with their rst meeting in 1548. Curators at the Museo del Prado assert that this particular work “is the only surviving or documented portrait of him in armor.” The contemporaneous writer Pietro Aretino described the picture as featuring a gesto bell di maestá reale (grand gesture of regal majesty), and the work was enormously in uential on subsequent courtly portraiture. Indeed, the crown prince here seems at con dent ease, still worlds away from the tumultuous events that take place in Verdi’s monumental opus. Titian, Vecellio di Gregorio. Philip II , 1551. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. ©Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado Tickets from $39 lyricopera.org Nothing compares to the joy of live performance PHOTO: CORY WEAVER/SAN FRANCISCO OPERA J’Nai Bridges stars as Carmen Hansel and Gretel Jan 25 - Feb 5 The Factotum Feb 3 - 12 Carmen Mar 11 - Apr 7 Proximity Mar 24 - Apr 8 West Side Story June 2 - 25 PERFORMED AT THE HARRIS THEATER WORLD PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE