 | This is my post from this week's Once or Twice a Fortnight. |
We haven’t done one of these (outside of the Short Story format) for awhile. I plan at least ne more of these before the end of 2023.
As we continue our survey of the lyrical / operatic alphabet, we come to the leter “U”. I reached out to the community for some suggestions, and received a few interesting ones. However, in spite of the fact I’m not very pleased with the prominence of the “U” in the title, there are a pair of Verdi operas that use the indefinite article “Un” in its title, and here we are today.
A few years back, we shared Nielsen’s comic opera Maskarade, where romance and parties are part of the narrative and where a masked ball is the setting for its third act. Ditto for Johann Strauss’ Fledermaus.
Verdi, however, has a much darker premise for his masked ball: the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden who was shot while attending a masked ball. The subject matter was explored almost two decades earlier by French composer Daniel François Esprit Auber in his five-act opera Gustave III subtitled “Le bal masque”.
According to Wikipedia, the original project by Verdi and his librettist Antonio Somma was called Gustavo III. Never performed as written, the libretto was later revised (or proposed to be revised) several times under two additional names – Una vendetta in dominò and Adelia degli Adimari – during which the setting was changed to vastly different locations. Eventually, it was agreed that it could be called Un ballo in maschera, the one by which it is known today, but Verdi was forced to accept that the location of the story would have to be Colonial Boston. This setting became the "standard" one until the mid-20th Century. Most productions today locate the action in Sweden, though the recording I chose specifically identifies the main character as Riccardo and not Gustavo, thus it is set in Boston.
The main strength of this performance, I think, is Abbado's pacing and the DG engineers' success in doing justice to the textures.
Interestingly, Abbado and two of the principal voices in the cast (Placido Domingo as Riccardo and Katia Ricciarelli as Amelia) were part of another production at the Royal Opera House about five years earlier – it is available on YouTube as well.
Happy listening!
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Un Ballo in maschera (1859)
Opera in three acts, Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
PRINCIPAL CAST
Plácido Domingo – Riccardo, Earl of Warwick and governor of Boston
Katia Ricciarelli – Amelia, wife of Renato
Renato Bruson – Renato, Riccardo's secretary, best friend and confidant
Edita Gruberová – Oscar, Riccardo's page
Elena Obraztsova – Ulrica, a fortune-teller
Coro e Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala
Chorus Master – Romano Gandolfi
Conductor – Claudio Abbado
Deutsche Grammophon – 2740 251 (Released in 1981)
Synopsis - https://www.opera-arias.com/verdi/un...hera/synopsis/
Libretto - https://www.opera-arias.com/verdi/un...hera/libretto/
Discogs - https://www.discogs.com/release/9791...Gruberova-Rugg
YouTube – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OL...KzU_tP9PGSdAg0
Archive Page - https://archive.org/details/guiseppe...bbado-acts-1-2
As we continue our survey of the lyrical / operatic alphabet, we come to the leter “U”. I reached out to the community for some suggestions, and received a few interesting ones. However, in spite of the fact I’m not very pleased with the prominence of the “U” in the title, there are a pair of Verdi operas that use the indefinite article “Un” in its title, and here we are today.
A few years back, we shared Nielsen’s comic opera Maskarade, where romance and parties are part of the narrative and where a masked ball is the setting for its third act. Ditto for Johann Strauss’ Fledermaus.
Verdi, however, has a much darker premise for his masked ball: the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden who was shot while attending a masked ball. The subject matter was explored almost two decades earlier by French composer Daniel François Esprit Auber in his five-act opera Gustave III subtitled “Le bal masque”.
According to Wikipedia, the original project by Verdi and his librettist Antonio Somma was called Gustavo III. Never performed as written, the libretto was later revised (or proposed to be revised) several times under two additional names – Una vendetta in dominò and Adelia degli Adimari – during which the setting was changed to vastly different locations. Eventually, it was agreed that it could be called Un ballo in maschera, the one by which it is known today, but Verdi was forced to accept that the location of the story would have to be Colonial Boston. This setting became the "standard" one until the mid-20th Century. Most productions today locate the action in Sweden, though the recording I chose specifically identifies the main character as Riccardo and not Gustavo, thus it is set in Boston.
The main strength of this performance, I think, is Abbado's pacing and the DG engineers' success in doing justice to the textures.
Interestingly, Abbado and two of the principal voices in the cast (Placido Domingo as Riccardo and Katia Ricciarelli as Amelia) were part of another production at the Royal Opera House about five years earlier – it is available on YouTube as well.
Happy listening!
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Un Ballo in maschera (1859)
Opera in three acts, Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
PRINCIPAL CAST
Plácido Domingo – Riccardo, Earl of Warwick and governor of Boston
Katia Ricciarelli – Amelia, wife of Renato
Renato Bruson – Renato, Riccardo's secretary, best friend and confidant
Edita Gruberová – Oscar, Riccardo's page
Elena Obraztsova – Ulrica, a fortune-teller
Coro e Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala
Chorus Master – Romano Gandolfi
Conductor – Claudio Abbado
Deutsche Grammophon – 2740 251 (Released in 1981)
Synopsis - https://www.opera-arias.com/verdi/un...hera/synopsis/
Libretto - https://www.opera-arias.com/verdi/un...hera/libretto/
Discogs - https://www.discogs.com/release/9791...Gruberova-Rugg
YouTube – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OL...KzU_tP9PGSdAg0
Archive Page - https://archive.org/details/guiseppe...bbado-acts-1-2
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