Duet of Don Carlo and Rodrigo (Don Carlo)

Commissioned by the Paris Opéra and first given at the Salle Le Peletier on 11 March 1867 as a five-act French grand opera with ballet, Don Carlos then spent two decades being cut, translated and rebuilt. Verdi returned to it in the early 1880s, producing the four-act Milan version in Italian, without ballet, first given in January 1884, and a five-act Modena version in 1886. No single authoritative text exists. Drawn from Schiller, the drama sets private affection against the machinery of state and church — a king who has never been loved, an inquisitor who outranks him, a friendship that costs a life.