Baritone Etienne Dupuis returns to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Rodrigo in the premiere performances of the original five-act French version of Don Carlos.

Verdi’s epic opera first premiered in French in 1867 at the Opéra national de Paris, with the composer later translating the work into Italian; the more widely-performed Don Carlo has been a staple of the Met’s repertoire.

Etienne appeared earlier this season as Rodrigo in an Italian Don Carlo with Deutsche Oper Berlin under the baton of James Gaffigan. Speaking to Opera Wire, he remarked that singing the French version has helped him to make discoveries within the text.

“In Italian, it was easier to go into the raw and emotional, and in French, I was able to find nuances that I had seen in the scores and I had struggled and it was hard to do. All of sudden in French it makes sense and you can sing that pianissimo on the high note that I have tried for years and years to sing and it is always a bit clunky. Now it just happens and I don’t have to think about it. That is what the language does. It is really fascinating how the nuances are easier in the French version.”

Don Carlos marks a return to the Met for Etienne after singing the Count in Nozze di Figaro in February 2020. He will appear in concert performances of Eugene Onegin with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in April before closing the season with his San Francisco Opera debut in the title role of a new production of Don Giovanni.

The new production directed David McVicar is conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who conducted his first Don Carlo at the Met in Italian and has been urging the Met to produce the French version ever since. The cast includes AH artists Vladyslav Buialskyi and Matthew Rose.

Later this spring, Matthew will head to Poland to make a role debut as Phillipe II in Wrocław Opera’s Don Carlo. Other season highlights for Matthew include singing Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met as well as his acclaimed debut as Wotan in the English National Opera’s Die Valkyrie earlier this year, where he was hailed as “a world-class Wagnerian in the making” (Financial Times).

The final performance of Don Carlos on Saturday 26 March will be streamed live to cinemas around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series and broadcast over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. The 28 February and 18 March performances will be broadcast live on Met Opera Radio on Sirius XM and streamed live at metopera.org.