Un Ballo in Maschera

A Mostly Good 'Ballo' Nearly Sunk by Silly Costuming
This film conflated from two live performances of 'Un Ballo in Maschera' comes from the Leipzig Opera and thus the marvelous Gewandhaus Orchestra is in the pit and the conductor is their new music director Riccardo Chailly, conducting his first-ever 'Ballo.' The singers are all unknown to me but I'll wager that we'll be hearing about Massimiliano Pisapia (Riccardo) and possibly also Chiara Taigi (Amelia) in the not too distant future. The rest of the cast is mostly Italian and that lends a certain stylistic unity to the production.

Taigi is a good-looking woman who has the spinto quality to sing Amelia. She has a voice that reminds me of Montserrat Caballé, particularly in her chest register. The voice rides easily over ensembles, but it is in her solos that she truly shines. 'Ma dall'arido stelo divulsa' and the following duet with Riccardo is thrilling and ultimately heartbreaking. Unfortunately as the opera continues on to Act III some signs of fatigue show up in...

Sublime!! Optimal performance,worthy of Verdi.
Looks like I am here first and I am happy not to be influenced by other belly-aching, jaundiced 'reviewers'.
This a wonderful performance, even better than Boccanegra. Conductor Gianluigi Gelmetti, an unlikely looking gentleman at first glance but at his first wave of the baton I felt he was a master. His upbeat tempi has a big sweep throughout that gives the opera the brilliance Verdi intended. Every bar has deep significance because he knows this opera and its complexities to a Tee. Karajan had it too in Vienna, in fact the Ballo was one of his favorite and a big challenge.
Stupendous singers. Francesco Meli as Riccardo is a young fresh voice, powerful and sensitive, thoroughly in empathy with the character.Vladimir Stoyanov is beginning to take over from Nucci. Again he is young and the voice is powerful, well shaded and his acting puts a menace into his Renato and at the same time we really feel his agony of being betrayed.Serena Gamberoni (Oscar) is a delight to behold...

De acuerdo
Estoy totalmente de acuerdo con Scott Morrison sobre esta versión de Un ballo in maschera. Musicalmente me parece de muy buen nivel; la escenografía es discreta; pero no logro entender cuál ha sido el propósito de vestir a los personajes con el vestuario estrafalario que lucen.

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