Carlo Remotti

Some 15 years ago, the hitherto unknown "Carlo G Manuscript" was purchased at a Vienna jumble sale for the princely sum of 60 euros. Once a doctoral thesis has been prepared based on this document and it had been made available on the internet in the form of scanned images, the manuscript was sold by Sotheby's at auction to an anonymous buyer in 2007, as a consequence of which it has once again disappeared. The fact that the surname of its author had become illegible as a result of a smudge deepens the mystery surrounding the manuscript even further - however, although being from the same time as that of the famous Carlo Gesualdo, everything points to the fact the prince of Venosa was not the composer being searched for…

Don Carlo is here presented in the full 5 Act Italian version and this performance is under the inspired direction of Carlo Maria Giulini who had celebrated the 'new' Covent Garden centenary with this opera in 1958. The cast then was different, but the Royal Opera Orchestra and Chorus remain, and they're on cracking form.