One of Verdi's grandest operas: his moving setting of Friedrich Schiller's drama of conflict between love, honour, loyalty and political ambition in a new production of the composer's revised, more compact, four-act version. Don Carlos, the heir to the Spanish throne, takes the side of the Flemish, fighting for their independence against Carlos's father, King Philip II, and the sinister Grand Inquisitor. This act of filial disobedience is aggravated by Carlos's love for Elisabeth, his father's new young wife.

Sung in Italian.

Paris Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conductor James Conlon

Act 1

7.10 Why Do We All Hate Philip So?
Was Philip II of Spain too conscientious to appeal to the likes of Schiller and Verdi? Novelist Adrian Mourby asks why some monarchs are loved by history and others loathed. The words of the real and operatic Philip are read by Peter Jeffrey, and the testimony of those who knew the king is spoken by Cyril Shaps and Alice Arnold.
(Repeat)

7.30 Act 2

8.10 A Sound Read
Ivan Hewett is joined by writer and broadcaster Christopher Cook and Dermot Clinch, music critic of New Statesman, to review the latest books on music. This month, a comprehensive new history of jazz, a biography exploring the extraordinary musical talent of Jacqueline du Pre, and A Women Scorn'd - Responses to the Dido Myth.

8.30 Acts 3 and 4