“I think Don Carlo is the quintessential Verdi opera,” says director Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys, The Madness of King George), who makes his Met debut with this new production, which was greeted with popular success when it opened in London. “Right through this opera there is, on the one hand, an implacable expression of impending doom and, on the other hand, a succession of the most gloriously open-throated arias, the most fantastically determined music.” Roberto Alagna leads the cast in the title role. Ferruccio Furlanetto, Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, and Simon Keenlyside also star in Verdi’s most ambitious opera. “Not one of these characters is prepared to accept his or her own tragic destiny,” Hytner says of this epic tragedy in which romantic desire shapes the course of nations. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, back after his triumphant debut leading Carmen, conducts.

To see an interview with director Nicholas Hytner, click here.