or her father. This aria demands a great deal of flexibility from the singer, requiring the use of different vocal shades depicting different well defined sections. For the composition of Don Carlo, Verdi used a play with the same title by the German playwright Friedrich Schiller. Verdi, who preferred political themes such as churchstate tension, or liberalism-dictatorship conflicts, found many of them in this play. Don Carlo was created for the Parisian audience, who favoured long operas. And indeed, it is one of the longest operas in Verdi’s corpus. After the premieres in Paris, Verdi created a shorter version of the opera by omitting its first act, in order to adapt it to audiences in different countries, including Italy. Verdi scholars do not tend to decide whether one of the versions is the true definitive work. The aria Tu che le vanità is Elisabeth’s farewell monologue, a recapitulation of her life and an expression of hope that death will not only be a farewell from life, but also bring the peace she seeks. Yossi Schiffman
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