Opera aficionados will be disappointed that David McVicar’s production of Don Carlo, new in February, comes back shorn of its idyllic first act depicting the Spanish infante and his designated bride, Elisabeth of Valois, as young lovers in a Fontainebleau forest. Even so, this staging of Verdi’s Schiller-based epic clocks in at nearly four hours.

The new cast is an improvement, although when I went, Russell Thomas was replaced in the title role by Rafael Davila, who performed respectably. As Elisabeth, constrained to marry Philip II, Carlo’s father, Eleonora Buratto sings with regal temperament and exquisitely focused tone, making her farewell to the banished Countess of Aremberg uncommonly poignant and endowing her gorgeous music in the final act with lovely pianissimos. She is impressively partnered by Günther Groissböck’s implacable, rock-solid Philip, an unpleasant figure whose setbacks as father, lover and ruler nevertheless win sympathy.

Another standout is Peter Mattei who, as the idealistic Marquis of Posa, sings with an unforced naturalness that radiates the character’s inherent goodwill. Yulia Matochkina brings an imposing, steady and resonant voice to the juicy role of Princess Eboli, delivering an exciting “O don fatale”. John Relyea, a holdover from the earlier cast, is a vocally and visually intimidating Grand Inquisitor. All goes smoothly under conductor Carlo Rizzi’s experienced leadership.

McVicar’s production is gloomy but not unlikable. Its single set resembles the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg (now a theatre) by suggesting theatrical boxes carved in stone. Incidental elements add variety: a swinging incense burner, a huge Christlike statue in distress, real people occupying the boxes for the auto-da-fé. More than the sets, lavish costumes suggest the 16th-century time frame. Gone is McVicar’s twist on Verdi’s deus-ex-machina ending: rather than having the ghost of emperor Charles V spirit Don Carlo away from the Inquisitor’s vengeance, as written, McVicar had earlier resurrected the murdered Posa to unite with Carlo, implying that the two were lovers.

Although Carlo and Elisabeth’s encounter in Fontainebleau has implications for every scene, the opera functions perfectly well when their single day of happiness is left undramatised to exist only as a memory. Dropping the first act was Verdi’s idea, implemented when he revised the long opera, first given at the Paris Opera in 1867, for performances at La Scala in 1884.

The earlier performances of the McVicar production presented the opera in French for the first time at the Met, though in a conflation of the two versions. Now the company reverts to the standard Italian translation. Purists will object, but the decision can only have assisted in assembling a strong cast, like the current one.

★★★★☆

To December 3, metopera.org