As the world knows, Anja Harteros dropped out of this series of Don Carlo for a stab at Aïda in Rome. Illness sidelined Ramón Vargas from the title roles in both Don Carlo and Werther. While Wiener Staatsoper has been plagued with cancellations all season (even substituting L’elisir d’amore for La Juive at the last minute last week when Neil Shicoff took till and no Eléazar was to be found), in this case the replacements—Stefano Secco and Maria Pia Piscitell—proved to be more than merely adequate. The rest of the cast is well-known to us all, and as a bonus we get parterre fave Ryan Speedo Green.  

Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlo

Wiener Staatsoper
Marco Armiliato, conductor
25 February 2015

Don Carlo – Stefano Secco
Elisabetta di Valois – Maria Pia Piscitelli
Filippo II – Ferruccio Furlanetto
Rodrigo – Dmitri Hvorostovsky
La principessa Eboli – Béatrice Uria-Monzon
Il grande Inquisitore – Eric Halfvarson
Un frate – Ryan Speedo Green
Tebaldo – Margaret Plummer
Il conte di Lerma/L’aroldo reale – Jinxu Xiahou
Una voce dal cielo – Simina Ivan

Photo: Dario Acosta