O Carlo Ascolta – Don Carlo

*Includes prior recitative.

Rodrigo

It’s me, dear Carlo.

Don Carlo
O Rodrigo, I am so grateful to you
For coming to Carlo in prison.

Rodrigo

Dear Carlo!

Don Carlo
Well you know it! I have abandoned myself to the current!
For Isabella’s love, I torture and kill myself...
No, it’s not worth going on living!
But you can save them yet;
The Flanders are no longer oppressed.

Rodrigo

Ah! I can see clearly your affection!
Get out of this ghastly tomb.
I am happy just because I can embrace you!
I will save you!

Don Carlo
What are you saying?

Rodrigo

We’d better say farewell!

Don Carlo
Why do you speak of death?

Rodrigo

Listen, time is running out,
I have already turned the tremendous lightning to me!
You are no longer the rival of the King now…
The proud agitator of the Flanders…is me!

Don Carlo
Who would believe it?

Rodrigo

The evidence is tremendous!
Your papers were found in my possession...
The rebellion testimonies are clear
And this head already had a certain price set on it.

Don Carlo
I want to expose everything about the King.

Rodrigo

No, you side with Flanders,
You are for the great Serbian work.
You must do it. A new golden age
You will be reborn; you must reign

And I must die for you.

Don Carlo
Heavens! Death! Whoever for?

Rodrigo

For me!
The vendetta of the King could not delay!
Oh God!

O Carlo, listen, your mother awaits you
At San Giusto tomorrow; she knows everything...
Ah! I’m leaving the earth... dearest Carlo;
Give me your hand...!
I will die, but glad in heart,
That I could keep
Such a saviour for Spain!
Ah! ... don’t... forget... me...!

Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Posa's two arias from the last act of Verdi's Don Carlo.

Joseph Volpe Galla, 2006.

O don fatale – Don Carlo

O fatal gift, o cruel gift
That heaven, in its wrath, made me!
You make us so vain, so haughty,
I curse you, I curse you, o my beauty!
I can only pour out tears,
I have no hope, I will have to suffer!

My crime is truly horrible
I can never blot it out!
I curse you, I curse you, o my beauty,
O my Queen, I sacrificed you

To the foolish error of this heart.

Now only in a cloister from the world

Must I hide my grief!

Alas! Alas! O my Queen,
Oh heavens! Carlo! Going to his death tomorrow,

Great God! I will see him go to his death!
Ah, only one day remaining, hope smiles on me,
Ah, blessed be the heavens! I will save him!

Olga Borodina as Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo. Apologies for the black and white and blurry image.

Il Grande Inquisitor - Don Carlo

The Count of Lerma

The Grand Inquisitor!

Inquisitor

Am I before the king...?

Filippo

Yes; I summoned you, my father!
I am in doubt,
Carlo has filled my heart
with a bitter sadness.
The child is rebelling against me,
Arming himself against his own father.

Inquisitor

What method of punishment will you choose?

Filippo

Extreme measures.

Inquisitor

Tell me.

Filippo

That he would escape... that he would be executed...

Inquisitor

Well?

Filippo

If I send my son to his death,
Will you absolve me?

Inquisitor

The peace of the empire is worth one rebel.

Filippo

Can I sacrifice my own son for the world
Me, a Christian?

Inquisitor

God sacrificed His Son to redeem us.

Filippo

But can you enforce a law that harsh?

Inquisitor

The same harshness is everywhere,
if it was there on Calvary.

Filippo

Could nature
And love keep silent in me?

Inquisitor

All must be silent to exalt the faith.

Filippo

Very well.

Inquisitor

Does the king have nothing more to ask me?

Filippo

No.

Inquisitor

Well then, I will speak with you, Sire.
Heresy has never ruled Spain,
But there is a man who wishes to undermine
the divine structure;
The king’s friend, his faithful companion,
The demon tempter who leads him to ruin.
Carlo’s betrayal has angered you
But that is a silly game by comparison.
And I, the Inquisitor,
I have often raised
My mighty hand above hordes of vile criminals,
For the great men of this world, should I forget my faith,
And quietly let a great rebel go free...
even for the king?

Filippo

To pass through the sorrows in which we live
I searched in vain within my Court
But I have found what I longed for,
A man! A loyal heart! I have found him!

Inquisitor

Why do you need a man?
Why do you hold the title of king,
Sire, if there is an equal for you?

Filippo

That’s enough, priest!

Inquisitor

The innovator’s ideas have taken root in you!
With your weak hand, you want to break the tare
Of the holy yolk, extended above the Roman orb...!
Return to your duty;
The church for the man who hopes,
for the man who repents,
Can offer a full pardon;
I ask you for Posa.

Filippo

No, never!

Inquisitor
O King, if I weren’t here with you in this secret meeting
This very day, I swear before God,
Tomorrow you would be brought to the Grand Inquisitor
At the supreme tribunal.

Filippo

Priest!
I have suffered your harsh words long enough!

Inquisitor

Why are you evoking the ghost of Samuel?
Henceforth I have given two royals
The reign of your kingdom...!
You want to destroy all that work, madman!
Why am I here?
What does the king want from me?

(To leave)

Filippo

My father, let there be peace between us yet.

Inquisitor

Peace?

Filippo

You must forget what has passed.

Inquisitor

Perhaps!

(Leaving)

Filippo

(Alone)
So the throne
must always bow to the altar!

Jerome Hines as the Grand Inquisitor and Paul Plishka as King Phillip in Verdi's Don Carlo.

Met, 1980. Conductor: James Levine.

Ella giammai m'amò – Don Carlo

She never loved me...!
No, that heart is closed to me,
She has no love for me...!
I can still see her
How sad she seemed
The day she saw my white hair
When she came here from France.
No, she has no love for me.

Where am I...? Those torches
They’ve nearly burned out...!
The sunrise brightens my balcony!
Dawn is already breaking!
I see my days passing slowly!
Sleep, O God!
Vanished from my languishing eyes!
I will sleep alone in my royal mantle
When my day has reached evening;
I will sleep alone under the dark vault
There, in the Escurial tomb!
If the regal crown could give me power
To read the hearts, that God alone can see...!
If the prince is sleeping, the traitor is waking;
The king loses his crown, and his honor! 

Boris Christoff sings King Phillip's aria from Verdi's Don Carlo.
His voice is not quite in its prime, but still has incredible and unique qualities.
Vienna, 1980s.