VERDI : UN BALLO IN MASCHERA

VERDI'S MASKED BALL
Radio New Zealand Concert network 
Sunday 11th of December at 6 - 8.35 pm
Sunday 31st of May 2015 at 6-9.20 pm
Sunday 5th of January 2013 at 3.03-7 pm
Sunday 3rd of Febuary 2008 at 3 pm

VERDI: Un ballo in maschera, an opera in three acts
Renato's wife, Amelia is torn between her duty to her husband and her love for his best friend, Riccardo. She consults the sorceress Ulrica to find out how to rid herself of her illicit passion.
2016
Gustavo....................... Piotr Beczala
Amelia......................... Krassimira Stoyanova
Count Ankarström....... Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Ulrica........................... Nadia Krasteva
Oscar............................ Hila Fahima
Vienna State Opera Chorus & Orch/Jesús López Cobos

2015
Gustavo III....................... Ricardo Tamura
Amelia.............................. Sondra Radvanovsky
Count Anckarström.......... Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Oscar................................ Heidi Stober
Ulrica............................... Dolora Zajick
Judge................................ Mark Schowalter
Cristiano........................... Trevor Scheunemann
Amelia's servant............... Scott Scully
Count Ribbing.................. Keith Miller
Count Horn....................... David Crawford
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/James Levine
2013
Riccardo...................... Marcelo Álvarez
Amelia......................... Sondra Radvanovsky
Oscar............................ Kathleen Kim
Ulrica........................... Stephanie Blythe
Renato......................... Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Judge........................... Mark Schowalter
Amelia's servant........... Scott Scully
Sam.............................. Keith Miller
Tom.............................. David Crawford
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Fabio Luisi (EBU)

INTRODUCTION 
HISTORY
SYNOPSIS
LIBRETTO (Italian/English)
PREVIEW (video)


The first question we need to ask is whether we are in Sweden or Boston (or even Stettin in Poland, in an early draft of the libretto, with the Duke of Pomerania as the central character). Is the lead-tenor Gustav III the King of Sweden or Riccardo the Governor of Boston? Remember the trouble Verdi had with censors over Rigoletto: assassination of reigning monarchs (the mortal sin of regicide) was generally forbidden on stage, so the King of France became the Duke of Mantua. And in the Masked Ball, for the first performance, the King of Sweden became Governor in Boston (presumably after the Revolution, when Americans had finished with royals ruling over them, and yet he is given the title 'Earl of Warwick').

The conspirators are Horn and Ribbing (both Counts, sounding like a pair of comics, and they do have a laughing song), alias Tom and Samuel [or Thomas and Sam?]. They are joined by Captain John Jacob Anckarstroem (who is made Secretary of State for the story), otherwise known in his American guise as Renato [I hadn't realized that the Italians migrated there so early?!]. The real King Gustav was a patron of the arts, especially theatre and music, and his assassination took place at a midnight masquerade in the Royal Opera House in Stockholm.

Gustav's mother was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia. His marriage to a princess from Denmark was "unhappy", but there was no Amelia in his life; she is a fiction. Gustav was shot in the back by Captain Anckarstroem for political reasons, though an additional motive was personal revenge for gross insults from the king (which had once incited him to hit his monarch in anger).

This New York Metropera production (2013) has the Italian names, but I am not sure that they want it to be in Boston. [Speaking after the event, I can now say that the tenor was King Gustavo, the baritone was Renato, and the two conspirators were given a Horn and a Ribbing.] In 2015 it was the Royal Gustavo in Stockholm.Certainly, there have been other stagings. In the first Paris performances the scene was set in Naples under Spanish rule and the Duke of Olivares. In Stockholm itself the Boston version was preferred until 1958, when a more authentic Swedish version of the libretto was introduced. Somebody is surely lurking out there who wants it set in Los Angeles / Hollywood under Spanish rule, with the evil governor pierced through by the sword of the masked Zorro.
In 2016 in Vienna it is Gustavo, and, as ever, his murderer with the aliases is Dmitri the white-haired baritone from Russia (he has been sick, but his medication did not include performance-enhancing drugs).

This is one opera I have personally seen, in an opera house (the floating one, which would sink if it did not have all those parachutes holding it up). I keep the magnificent programme (1985, Sweden setting) in the big green box containing Riccardo Muti's Royal Opera House Covent Garden version (1975, set in Boston: Domingo, Arroyo, with Gwynne Howell [I like him] as Samuel). I have just noticed something: Kenneth Collins, the tenor with the minuscule part of Un Giudice (but translated as 'the Chief Justice' in the Sydney programme) was elevated to the role of the King, in Australia. I saw Carol Vaness as Amelia, and Lauris Elms as Ulrica Arvidson (the wicked witch, or a fortune teller).

The Muti recording has been rated the best, and not just because it is graced by "Girls from the Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, Elstree" and the Medici String Quartet. The Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs gives 3 stars to all but one of the available versions in 1993 (Solti with Birgit Nilsson in Rome), including, further back in time, a mono recording with Callas, Stefano, and Gobbi, under Serafin); apparently there is another one with the same outstanding crew, under Votto.

I have picked up a few versions on videotape, from television broadcasts. One has Domingo as the King-o. and Sumi Jo as Oscar.

In 2002, in the Gothenburg opera house in Sweden, a reconstruction of Verdi's original version was performed, and released on two audio discs, as Gustavo III.

What spectacular settings Verdi gives us: a royal audience chamber; a fortune-teller's den; the place of execution at midnight (I first got to know this through Régine Crespin's recording of Verdi heroines; what a voice); finally a ballroom.

In real life, Anckerstroem was not pardoned but was executed after three days of being pilloried. Horn and Ribbing were sent into exile. Gustav lingered in agony for thirteen days, and then succumbed. Verdi missed a marvelous opportunity here to set a world record for the longest death monologue, far lengthier than Violetta's, Mimi's, or Siegfried's.

Obsolete but sometimes they come back to life.
INTRODUCTION
COMPOSER
BACKGROUND
CHARACTERS
SYNOPSIS
STORYLINE with pictures, Pavarotti and Voigt, but no masks!!
INTERVAL GRRRReat, an opera quiz in the 2nd intermission!
LIBRETTO