Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi)

[cahn]

So, a not-quite-love-triangle (Verdi has super spoiled me! I was like, where are the family relationships??) with Gustavo, the King of Sweden; his best friend and secretary Renato; and Renato's wife Amelia. (Because of Censors, Gustavo started out as Riccardo, the Governor of Boston, which is totally awesome. But both my audio and video experiences were with Sweden instead of Boston.)

(Note: D got hold of this post while I was writing it. I think I have scrubbed his comments, but if there's anything about Mr. Bennett or cosmonauts I am blaming him!)

I listened to Un Ballo in Maschera in Opera in English (which was fine -- not one of the strongest, but not the weakest either) and borrowed from RL opera friend the Salzburg 1990 production with Domingo as Gustavo, Josephine Barstow as Amelia, Leo Nucci as Renato/Anckarstrom, Florence Quivar as Ulrica, and Sumi Jo as Oscar. This one was wonderful and I am seriously thinking about buying my own copy.

My watching experience went something like this:


Production: *has lavish traditional sets and elaborate period costumes and is basically the furthest thing from a regie production possible*
Me: So I'm watching this Met production --
alcanis_ivennil: No, it's Salzburg.
My brain: *explodes*

Plácido Domingo: *sings*
Me: Ah, it's Domingo again! Hi! I like you! You're noticeably older than everything else I've seen you in as a tenor, and noticeably younger than everything I see clips of as you as a baritone! I am a little weirded out by this!
Leo Nucci: *sings, acts*
Me: ...wow. You are awesome and I want to see everything you've ever done.
Sumi Jo: *sings*
Me: WHOA WHAT WAS THAT. How are you so perfectly matched up with the orchestra underneath you on all those trills and runs and so sparkly?? Are you a vocalist or a string instrument?? How do you even do that? Are you even breathing??

Renato: Gustavo, you have to be careful because our country would be soooo badly off if you died! Also because you're my best friend!
Me: ....apparently I have even more of a loyalty kink than I thought. I'm already totally a huge fan of Renato!
Gustavo: Nonsense, everyone loooooves me so I'll be fine! Also I think I'll go check out this fortuneteller Ulrica who apparently talks to Satan, because as the king of the country this is totally the best use of my time.
Me: On the other hand, Renato, I am not sure I agree with you that the country would be so badly off without Gustavo.

Amelia: I'm married to Renato, but alas, I am in love with Gustavo!
Me: ...I don't know if you've noticed, Amelia, but your husband is way hotter than Gustavo. I'm just saying.

Amelia: I have to pick this herb next to the gallows at midnight for Plot Reasons so that I can be cured of my love for Gustavo. EEK WHAT WAS THAT.
Gustavo: It's me! I followed you here because I am a tenor, and stalking is a Thing That Tenors do! Amelia, tell me you love me!
Amelia: No!
Gustavo: I am gonna keep pestering you until you do!
Amelia: I love you!
Gustavo: Let remorse and friendship be destroyed within my breast! Let all be dead except my love!
Amelia and Gustavo: *kiss*
Gustavo: *is totally trying to feel her up*
Me: ...so, I have listened to this before watching and I know Gustavo and Amelia are supposed to be innocent, but Gustavo is sure not sounding AT ALL innocent right now and he's definitely not looking very innocent and I am really on Renato's side emotionally even if intellectually I know he shouldn't be going around killing people --
Renato: Aaaaand here I am!
Amelia: *hastily veils herself*
Renato: Gustavo, you should leave so the conspirators don't kill you.
Amelia: You should leave.
Gustavo: Clearly I should not leave.
Renato, Amelia, and me: JUST GO, OKAY??
D, wandering by: It's time for the conspirators to show up, right? Since this is an opera, they are probably in league with the fortune-teller.
Me: NO THEY'RE NOT. Ulrica is totally blameless! Well, except for that whole talking with Satan thing.
Conspirators: Who's that lady? *Amelia is unveiled* Oh, Renato, it's your wife! Ha ha! You were having a little honeymoon tryst! Next to the gallows at midnight!
Renato: *is completely and utterly crushed while the conspirators laugh*
Me: RENATO! :(

In Renato's house:
6-year-old-kid: *sits on steps waiting for mom and dad to get home*
Me: Kid, go to bed! It must be, like, 1am!
Renato: Blood must flow, and you must die.
Kid: *has had enough of mom and dad fighting, runs up the stairs to bed*
Me: Poor kid! *is relieved he is no longer around*
Renato: *his hands go to Amelia's throat for a split second*
Renato: *flinches away*
Renato: *backs away to the other side of the room, totally horrified at himself*
Amelia: You would kill me! At least let me hug my child.
Renato: *you didn't actually have to sing that aria, Amelia, I wasn't going to actually kill you!*
Me: ...I know this is all Nucci/the direction rather than libretto, but this is all totally going in my headcanon anyway.
Renato: But I am really upset, and I'm going to channel all that rage into being upset with Gustavo!
Videographer: *dramatic closeup on this EXTREMELY HUGE portrait of Gustavo that's in their house but which has not been hitherto focused on*
Me: ...WHY DO THEY HAVE AN EXTREMELY HUGE PORTRAIT OF GUSTAVO IN THEIR HOUSE. I THINK I SEE THE PROBLEM.
Videographer: *keeps doing DRAMATIC CLOSEUPS on the portrait as Renato sings*
Me: *feels guilty about laughing while Renato is so upset*

Gustavo: I guess I will sign this order to have Renato and Amelia return to their home country, that way she and I won't do anything any more awful than have an emotional affair. And kiss. But that's as far as we went! Could have been much worse!
Me: Yeah, but...
Letter from Amelia: Don't go to the ball, conspirators will kill you!
Gustavo: This clearly means I should go to the ball! Also, then my heart will burn for love with Amelia! This is a good thing, right?
Me: DO YOU EVER LISTEN TO ANYONE, GUSTAVO.

At the ball:
Oscar: *is sweet and cute as she's been this whole time*
Renato: Oscar, what is Gustavo dressed as?
Oscar: I won't tell! Ha ha!
Renato: It's important!
Oscar: A black cape with a pink ribbon.
Me: NOOOOOOO, Renato, you know I love you but how could you do that to my sweet Oscar??
Amelia: Gustavo, how many times it is now that someone has told you that conspirators are going to kill you. Add +1 to that.
Gustavo: Another opportunity for me to declare that I won't be cowardly and leave! Add +1 to that.
Me: Gustavo, are you the most exasperating person ever or what?!
Everyone else who has ever watched an opera: HE IS A TENOR.
Gustavo: Also, you are going back to your native land. Also, let us have a very emotional and also rather touchy farewell.
Me: I... mean... you don't know that Renato has discovered the lady you were with was Amelia, but this... is not a good idea, this is going to make him feel even worse --
Renato: *shoots Gustavo*
Oscar: *is devastated*
Me: Oscar!! :((((((((
Gustavo: I didn't have sex with your wife!
Me: I don't know, if I were dying and the thing I thought of to say was whether I was or wasn't having an affair with someone's spouse, I'd be really suspicious of that...
Renato: *agrees with me; very obviously does not believe Gustavo*
Gustavo: See, look, I wrote an order saying you guys should go back to your native land! *hands it to Amelia, who tearfully hands it to Renato*
Renato: *for some reason now believes Gustavo and is totally upset*
Everyone: *is upset*
Gustavo: I am still ruler here (until I die) and I pardon everyone! Farewell, beloved America Sweden! *dies*
Me: Verdi, you... got me to like Gustavo at the end even though I've been exasperated at him this entire time... NOT FAIR VERDI.

Comments

[zdenka]

I will continue to insist that this opera is set in Boston! Because I think it's hilarious.

A lot of my reactions are similar to yours. I wrote a silly plot summary of this opera about, um, ten years ago now, good Lord. (https://zdenka.dreamwidth.org/1340164.html)

I'm much more sympathetic to Renato than Riccardo in this opera (barring the whole murder bit). Renato is loyal and a good friend (until Riccardo abuses his loyalty), and Riccardo really isn't. And Riccardo is really exasperating in his refusal to listen when people are telling him sensible things.

Oscar is really charming. I'm currently having a mental block on what I've seen or heard Sumi Jo in, but my first reaction to seeing her name was "yes, she's amazing!" so she definitely impressed me in something.

[selenak]

:) I don't think I've ever heard/seen the opera switched back to the original Swedish Setting, though I know that's a thing. BTW, did anyone ever stage Rigoletto with the Duke switched back to King Francis I., which he is in Hugo's original novel, and Mantua to Paris? (Verdi had to make the change for identical reasons. Ah, 19th century censorship!)


Domingo I saw twice live when he was still a tenor, once during one of those Three Tenors events with Pavarotti & Carreras, and once in Bayreuth, where he sang Sigmund to Waltraud Maier's Sieglinde in Die Walküre. Since Waltraud Maier had just quarrelled with Wolfgang Wagner, everyone knew this would be her last appearance in Bayreuth (and it was until this year, more than two decades later!), and she was glorious. The audience melted, and not just because of the summer heat. (Which in the Festspielhaus is something, since it can't have modern air conditioning for sound reasons.) Domingo didn't even try to outshine her, though Sigmund is the bigger part, he supported her, and it was just one of the best experiences I had in Bayreuth.


Back then, one of my classmates from the Wagner lectures had an internship in Bayreuth, and she told me a Domingo/Maier anecdote - Waltraud M. had thought it a nice idea to give him a little present, a bottle of mead, which is "Met" in German, to be delivered at his wardrobe, because Met is what Sieglinde gives to Sigmund as a greeting in the opera, with a German note saying "Mead from your Sieglinde". And - nothing. He doesn't mention it. Since she's worked with him before, and knows it's unlike him, she asks whether the mead wasn't delivered, and quoth Domingo: "Oh, that was from you? I thought the Met had send it!"

I

[alcanis_ivennil]

"I don't know if you've noticed, Amelia, but your husband is way hotter than Gustavo" - the problem in nearly every production. Younger Nucci was quite handsome (there's also a Met Forza with him from '84, he looked niiiice). Although younger Domingo was also quite a looker.

Also: the 2012 Met Ballo, oh boy. Álvarez is a rather dashing fellow but when Renato is the world's most beautiful silver fox...

Yeah, Gustavo is very much a tenor, although at least he gets some character development. He is pretty damn difficult, though - he has a huge amount of singing to do.

Sumi Jo is such a great Oscar! Although I don't think I have ever seen a bad Oscar, they're always so cute.