Verdi: Don Carlo Ileana Cotrubas, Patricia Parker, Romayne Grigorova, Luis Lima, John Dobson, Matthew Best, Giorgio Z

Verdi was commissioned by the Paris Opera to write Don Carlo to a French libretto. The source material was a dramatic play by Schiller and the work premiered as a five-act grand opera in March 1867 under the title Don Carlos. Set in the 16th century, its subject is Carlo, the son of Spain’s King Phillip II, and his love for Elizabetta, whom Philip later marries. (Opus Arte)