Complete in the Revised Version in Five Acts (1885)
Juan Pantoja, Felipe II (1576)
As the rehearsals for the première of Don Carlos it became clear that the opera was far too long for the Paris stage, whereupon Verdi himself made substantial cuts. Early Italian revivals, in a translation by Achille de Lauzières, were sometimes successful but the opera's length continued to present problems.
In 1884, Verdi made a thoroughgoing revision of the score, in part to reduce the opera to more manageable proportions and in part to replace pieces that he now found unsatisfactory. The most important cut was the whole of Act 1, though Carlos's aria was inserted into the following act. In 1885, a version which restored the original act 1 was published and began to be performed with Verdi's approval.
It is important to bear in mind that, although the 1884 version was first performed in Italian, the revisions made by Verdi were always to a French text. In other words, there is no Italian version of Don Carlos but merely an Italian translation.
Act 1
Act 3, part 1
Act 3, part 2
Act 4, part 1
Act 4, part 2
Act 4, part 3
