(Credit: Yan Bleney)

On Feb. 28, the Metropolitan Opera will showcase the company premiere of “Don Carlos,” the French version of Verdi’s opera. For the new production by Sir David McVicar, the company has lined up an all-star cast that includes Canadian baritone Étienne Dupuis.

Dupuis has performed around the world at the Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra de Montréal, Opéra de Paris, Opera National du Rhin, Opernhaus Zurich, and Glyndebourne Festival. His repertoire includes the music of Rossini, Verdi, Massenet, Puccini, Mozart, and Jake Heggie among other.

Dupuis, who has performed the role of Rodrigo around the world and will take on the role in French for the first time, spoke with OperaWire about the experience, the differences in the versions, and whether he prefers the Verdi masterpiece in French or Italian.

OperaWire: What does it feel like to sing in the first-ever French version of “Don Carlos” at the Metropolitan Opera?

Etienne Dupuis: In rehearsals, the first rehearsal we had with Yannick conducting he told us that before he was the director at the Met, he conducted his first Don Carlo at the Met in Italian. From that moment he had said that the company needed to bring the French version. So five, six years later it’s finally here. And there is a bit of that excitement all around teh theater and I was like, ” we finally realized this dream from years ago.” To be part of that is very special.

There are so many versions of Don Carlo and it was created in French with five acts and ballet and then there was a five-act without ballet. And then he reworked it seven or eight years later and then it was reworked again in a different version in French and it turned into a four-act version. And then all these versions were translated into Italian. With David McVicar and Yannick together they decided to start with the French version and when we feel that the music is better in later versions we will do that switch. So it is important for people to understand that it is not the 1867 Paris version. We don’t do the ballet and there are a few moments like the duet with the King and the quartet in Act four, we are using the Italian version with French text. A lot of the French music is still there and the long scene after Rodrigo’s death scene is still there and even the final duet is in a different key and has different lines. The whole first act is from the original version. It is not what Verdi wrote the first time but we are making sure that the story and the drama are as clear as possible.

OW: Had you done the French version before and how is it different from the Italian version?

ED: This is the first time in French and it changes a lot according to the language. With the Italian it is the Bel Canto, the long beautiful lines and the drama is so passionate. Even when you watch the news in Italian, you see the passion of the language and then you watch the news in French, it’s all the perfect moment and word and inflection. I call it more rational and more calculated. There is still that emotion and that is the way I feel about singing it in French.

In Italian, it was easier to go into the raw and emotional, and in French, I was able to find nuances that I had seen in the scores and I had struggled and it was hard to do. All of sudden in French it makes sense and you can sing that pianissimo on the high note that I have tried for years and years to sing and it is always a bit clunky. Now it just happens and I don’t have to think about it. That is what the language does. It is really fascinating how the nuances are easier in the French version.

OW: The French version has music that can be more introverted as opposed to the Italian which is more immediate. Would you say that the music allows that?

ED: The short answer is yes but the long answer is that the French language can be sarcastic. I find that is there a lot in “Don Carlos.” Especially with characters like Eboli who is much more clever than what people have made of her in the past.  She is truly powerful.

Rodrigo is powerful as well because powerful alliance with the king and he already has a powerful ally in Dom Carlo. It is kind of like the clash between these two guys that I find is highlighted in the French version. We don’t share the stage that often but in the scenes, we have there is something.

I have always thought that the first aria by Rodrigo is clumsy in Italian as he is trying to convince the queen to say yes to seeing the Prince. But then in French, it felt more powerful to me. Perhaps because of all the words, I am saying, I have one goal to convince the queen while making sure that no one else around her has any suspicion that it can be for anything else than for his needs. It is very clear that Rodrigo knows that Don Carlo and Elisabetta have a relationship. Yet strongly hinted at. In Italian, it is quite forceful but in French, it’s not. The French version has really opened my eyes to how I can play with the politics of it all. The duet with the King is so good in Italian that in fact that is the music we are using. The king is super impressed with how truthful and honest Rodrigo is. Rodrigo is really playing with his life at that point. And you can hear it in the French text which is exactly the same as in Italian. The French language really allows a lot of it to shine.

OW: As a native French speaker, do you prefer singing the French version to the Italian version?

ET: That is tough because my whole career I have sung Italian repertoire. I have always had an Italianate way for me to go to the high notes and I love the long legato lines. I have an affinity for it and maybe that is why people associate me with Italian music. But I have to admit that I love doing all the nuances and subtleties that the French language permits. I don’t know which I find easier. In this particular case, the text is a bit clumsy when it repeats. It’s a bit clumsy where Verdi places it. There will be strange stresses sometimes and there will be at other times repetitions. My whole career I have always sung the death scene in Italian and in the first aria “Per me Giunto,” in French its “C’est mon jour suprème” and in the second half of it, he repeats nonstop. But in Italian, he does not repeat or use the same phrases to repeat. The line keeps going in Italian. It doesn’t go back to the first line. It would work differently if the music was different but because it moves forward it doesn’t always work. It happens in the auto da fe, the quartet, and other moments and it is weird. That is really the only flaw I find in the French version.

OW: Do you find yourself ever mixing up the two versions while performing the French version?

ET: Italian and French can be quite close both being Romance languages and having similar words. We have a prompter in this production and I normally do not use the prompter a lot. But I did tell him that there is one line that I need you to feed to me. The reason is that it is the exact same thing that I sing in French as I sing in Italian. In Italian the lines are inverted. These lines are in the first duet with Don Carlo and every time the wrong intention comes out.

The text and the rhythm are very weird. There are things that don’t exist in Italian that exist in the French version. The length of notes are different in both versions. These are things that I never noticed and these tiny little details are not so tiny and you can play off of them. They also make the character more interesting.

OW: The relationship between Don Carlo and Rodrigo has always been quite interesting. Tell me how you interpret it in this production?

ET: Don Carlo is like Don Giovanni in that when you go see the opera you will always be amazed by the singing of Donna Anna and Donna Elvira and Don Ottavio, even though the show is called Don Giovanni. He is a lightning rod for the show. Don Carlo is the same. He is a lightning rod for the whole drama to happen. But beyond that, the politics of it all are so interesting. Don Carlo is interesting to play if you don’t think you need to look amazing and sound amazing. The real Don Carlo was deformed and mentally unstable. This is toned down and it is not a love story, it is a political story. In this production at the end, David McVicar shows Don Carlo and Elisabetta at peace with the decision to separate. They are not hugging or in tears. They are saying those words and they mean it. It is a very strong character if you think of him as a nonhero. And yet he becomes heroic and it takes Rodrigio’s sacrifice.

As for the relationship between Don Carlo and Rodrigo, we didn’t have to work on it because all agreed without saying it to each other. Matthew Polenzani is a lovely colleague and extremely talented and secure in his singing. He is in character at all times and I am quite similar in that you have to be truthful to the character at all times. So David was super happy because he got us who were ready to go for it. They are like brothers who grew up together. They grew up in a castle with Don Carlo’s unloving father and Rodrigo being thrown into nobility. They found each other amidst all those political gains. They have the deepest bond they can imagine. They have gone through so much you can imagine. War is just one of those experiences. There is a bond for life.

OW: Rodrigo has the double aria in the fourth act and in this production, they have added the Lacrimosa. Tell me about singing those pieces, which are some of the most heartbreaking moments in opera, and listening to the music afterward?

ET: I am not going to lie but the first few times that the scene after my death comes, I did cry. I am dead on stage and all of a sudden I am hearing Matthew singing, I am tearing up. people in the audience will cry. I have had people in the audience tell me how much they love the two arias and how they have cried. And I am thinking, if you cry just because of Rodrigo’s singing, you are in for a ride right after that. it is going to be something. The Lacrimosa is so dramatic and moving.

OW: The cast of this opera, your conductor, and your director are all incredible. What have you learned from working with all of them?

ET: This is one of those rare cases where everyone is happy to be there. There are no divas. Sonya Yoncheva is a diva by name but when she shows up she is so fun and happy. Matthew is the same thing and he is working with us on the character. We all work the same together and Yannick Nezet-Seguin fits perfectly in that. He knows what he wants in terms of this “Don Carlos” but also sees who is in front of him and thinks of how he can make a person sound best and convey the best possible emotions. We are all pushing in the same direction and there was not one day when I didn’t want to go to rehearsal. There was not one single time where I thought my colleagues were not doing a great job. The orchestra is also sounding amazing because everyone is so happy.

OW: If you could pick one version of “Don Carlo,” which would you prefer performing?

ET: If I could choose my personal “Don Carlo,” even if I wasn’t in it, I think my version would be the four-act with the French text. I think I would do the opposite of what they did. I would go with the Italian version, use the French text and I would put some of the French music in it, instead of what they did, which was use the French music and put some of the Italian music. I am so fond of the big scene after Rodrigo’s death and I am fond of the final duet being in B flat and not in B Major because it is so hard to sing. I also love the first act the tenor arias where he sums up the first act in three minutes. That would be my ideal for now until I find another.