review on Don Carlo from the MET
is here.
This is written about Simon Keenlyside´s Posa:
"Posa can often seem too good to be true, but Simon Keenlyside made him real-intelligent, principled and unsentimental. There was sinew as well as beauty in his expressive baritone-no wonder Philip tries to enlist him as a kind of surrogate son. One of the most powerful scenes in the production was their Act II meeting, in which the splendid bass Ferrucio Furlanetto, as the harsh, intimidating Philip, slowly dropped his guard enough to offer Posa friendship and a glimpse of his own fears. That same slight hint of vulnerability also made Philip's famous Act IV aria, in which he bemoans the fact that his wife doesn't love him and he cannot read human hearts, more effective than an all-out wail. As the Grand Inquisitor, who arrives to pull Philip back to autocracy, bass Eric Halfvarson was remarkably creepy: Ancient and blind, with a hand tremor deliberately mirrored in his voice, he was clearly the power behind the throne."
This is written about Simon Keenlyside´s Posa:
"Posa can often seem too good to be true, but Simon Keenlyside made him real-intelligent, principled and unsentimental. There was sinew as well as beauty in his expressive baritone-no wonder Philip tries to enlist him as a kind of surrogate son. One of the most powerful scenes in the production was their Act II meeting, in which the splendid bass Ferrucio Furlanetto, as the harsh, intimidating Philip, slowly dropped his guard enough to offer Posa friendship and a glimpse of his own fears. That same slight hint of vulnerability also made Philip's famous Act IV aria, in which he bemoans the fact that his wife doesn't love him and he cannot read human hearts, more effective than an all-out wail. As the Grand Inquisitor, who arrives to pull Philip back to autocracy, bass Eric Halfvarson was remarkably creepy: Ancient and blind, with a hand tremor deliberately mirrored in his voice, he was clearly the power behind the throne."