BaL 5.10.13 – Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library
Roger Parker surveys recordings of Verdi's opera Un ballo in maschera and makes a personal recommendation

Available versions:-

La Scala, Claudio Abbado
Orchestra dell’Accadema Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bruno Baroletti
Leipzig Opera & Gewandhausorchester, Riccardo Chailly
Madrid SO & Chorus, Jesus Lopez Cobos (Blu-ray/DVD)
ROH, Sir Colin Davis
NHK SO, Oliviero de Fabritis
Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Oliviero de Fabritis
La Scala, Gianandrea Gavazzeni (alternative versions)
Teatro Regio di Parma, Gianluigi Gelmetti (Blu-ray/DVD)
Vienna State Opera, Miguel-Angel Gomez-Martinis
Vienna State Opera, VPO, Herbert von Karajan (download)
RCA Italiana Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf
Metropolitan Opera, James Levine
Metropolitan Opera, Dimitri Mitropoulos (alternative casts)
ROH. New Philharmonia, Riccardo Muti
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, LPO, David Parry
Metropolitan Opera, Giuseppe Patane (DVD)
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della RAI, Angelo Questa
Metropolitan Opera, Nello Santi
Suisse Romande, Nino Sanzogno
Metropolitan Opera, Thomas Schippers
Rome Opera, Tullio Serafin
ROH, Tullio Serafin
Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, Sir Georg Solti (download)
National PO, Sir Georg Solti
Vienna State Opera, VPO, Sir Georg Solti (DVD)
Berlin Radio, Steiner
Teatro Comunale Firenze, Emidio Tieri
Arturo Toscanini (1954)
La Scala, Nino Verchi
La Scala, Antonino Votti
Metropolitan Opera, Bruno Walter

[verismissimo]

Worra lorra Ballos. Astonishing.

[Nick Armstrong]

A load of complete Ballos, in fact.

I'll be sitting this one out...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When it comes to listing operas for BaL, it might have been be more helpful to list casts as well as opera companies, orchestra and conductors, but that was just too time consuming.

Sorry.

[Richard Tarleton]

Roger Parker always good value on Verdi - expert and entertaining.

The only time I've seen Ballo (WNO) performed, the action was restored to its real setting (it's a true story) - Stockholm, on 15 and 16 March 1792, with the characters given their real names as per Verdi's original version - King Gustav lll, Counts Ribbing and Horn (the conspirators) etc. He was forced to remove the setting to 17th century Boston to satisfy the Vatican censors and get the work performed in Rome. A shame IMV that most modern productions and recordings (inc mine - Domingo/Arroyo/Muti/ROH) stick to the "censored" version, but doubtless RP will shed more light on the matter. I'm certainly not in the market for another version

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

When it comes to listing operas for BaL, it might have been be more helpful to list casts as well as opera companies, orchestra and conductors, but that was just too time consuming.

Sorry.

If you were receiving a portion of the Licence Fee, and had nothing else to do, we might expect this of you, Alpie. As it is, you offer far better value than the officials in charge of Beeb websites.

Many Thanks

[verismissimo]

If you were receiving a portion of the Licence Fee, and had nothing else to do, we might expect this of you, Alpie. As it is, you offer far better value than the officials in charge of Beeb websites.

Many Thanks

Seconded.

[Flosshilde]

& thirded

[martin_opera]

Ballo is top drawer Verdi and may even be his best opera - combining public and private (as he so often does) but with a sense of exubernace running through the middle that changes the overall effect of the opera and in a great performance really endures you to the protaganists.

My top three are Colin Davis (with Carreras and Caballe) who really brings out the fun of the piece and is always woefully under rated, Claudio Abbado (with Domingo and Ricciarelli) probably the best library choice and all rounder and Riccardo Muti (Domingo again and Arroyo) which is alittle more daring in some of the speeds. You can't ignore Callas but she isn't well supported by Votto in her studio recording and the sound on the Gavazenni live set is just tolerable. I haven't warmed to the Karajan (it has its fans), either of the Solti readings or the Bartoletti (save for the wonderful Pavarotti performance) and the less said about the Rizzi version (think it might be missing from the list - WNO I think) the better. Leinsdorf on RCA is good middle ground especially for Bergonzi and Verrett but I always feel a little disappointed with Leontyne Price as she makes heavy work of the arias (good duet with Bergonzi though).

Gramophone did this recently and plumped for the live Callas I think with Muti and Panizza as runners up.

[gurnemanz]

The Toscanini 1954 mentioned above is from NBC broadcasts only a few months before his retirement, aged 87, and is on the bumper RCA Arturo Toscanini Collection. I really enjoyed it, (especially having found a site that does parallel English/Italian libretti.) The other one I know is Callas and the only time I have seen it live was in German at the Meiningen Theatre in what was East Germany, soon after reunification. It was here that Brahms conducted the premiere of his Fourth.

[Alain Maréchal]

The only time I've seen Ballo (WNO) performed, the action was restored to its real setting (it's a true story) - Stockholm, on 15 and 16 March 1792, with the characters given their real names as per Verdi's original version - King Gustav lll, Counts Ribbing and Horn (the conspirators) etc. He was forced to remove the setting to 17th century Boston to satisfy the Vatican censors and get the work performed in Rome. A shame IMV that most modern productions and recordings (inc mine - Domingo/Arroyo/Muti/ROH) stick to the "censored" version, but doubtless RP will shed more light on the matter. I'm certainly not in the market for another version

It was performed in the Stockholm setting by the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in the 1970s, and it was revived frequently. The sets were mostly gauzes with very effective shifting lighting perspectives for this nocturnal opera, which of course were completely lost when it was filmed with television lighting. I saw it often and recall Bergonzi as probably the most sylish interpreter (when was he not?) of Gustavo. He occasionally forgot that he was in Stockholm and referred to characters from the Boston version. Nicolai Gedda, in the autumn of his career, was equally stylish, but decided to play up the effeminate side of the historical Gustav, as a recent Stockholm production had required.

I recall reading or hearing that somewhere along the censorship route the opera's setting was intended to be Naples, which explains some of the jolly rhythms unsuitable to Protestant Sweden or Puritan Boston.

[BBMmk2]

A load of complete Ballos, in fact.

I'll be sitting this one out...

Lovely post Cali! I be sitting in this one! Go for a pint of spitfire (or two!!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Lovely post Cali! I be sitting in this one! Go for a pint of spitfire (or two!!)

... at half-past-nine in the morning???!!!


RESPECT!

[Nick Armstrong]

... at half-past-nine in the morning???!!!


RESPECT!

Three weeks of John Flamin' Williams and then a week of Verdi, I feel like breakfast by Tanqueray or Smirnoff rather than Shepherd Neame...

[Richard Tarleton]

It was performed in the Stockholm setting by the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in the 1970s, and it was revived frequently. The sets were mostly gauzes with very effective shifting lighting perspectives for this nocturnal opera, which of course were completely lost when it was filmed with television lighting. I saw it often and recall Bergonzi as probably the most sylish interpreter (when was he not?) of Gustavo. He occasionally forgot that he was in Stockholm and referred to characters from the Boston version. Nicolai Gedda, in the autumn of his career, was equally stylish, but decided to play up the effeminate side of the historical Gustav, as a recent Stockholm production had required.

I recall reading or hearing that somewhere along the censorship route the opera's setting was intended to be Naples, which explains some of the jolly rhythms unsuitable to Protestant Sweden or Puritan Boston.

Thank you for this, AM, fascinating stuff. Bergonzi