Don Carlos

Friedrich Schiller’s masterwork of German Romanticism, Don Carlos, combines royal family intrigue with a profound reflection on political oppression. Don Carlos is son and heir to Phillip II, and in love with the Queen, his stepmother Elizabeth. The Queen directs Don Carlos’ passion toward opposing his father’s tyrannical regime. The secrets, paranoia, and lust for love and power eventually consume the whole court. Schiller wrote: “Don Carlos has the soul of Hamlet … and my own pulse.”