Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” (“A Masked Ball”) opened San Francisco Opera’s 102nd season on Friday at the War Memorial Opera House, with many of the nearly 3,000 attendees sporting masks (decorative, not KN95) and applauding the well sung, richly staged performance.
Written in the composer’s prime, “Ballo” is possibly the most inventive of Verdi’s works, dramatically of a piece, packed with glorious arias that flesh out the characters and with superb choruses throughout its nearly three-hour performance time.
Verdi chose Sweden as his setting for the 1859 opera about doomed love and regicide, where real life King Gustavus lll was murdered by a band of discontented aristocrats in the 1790s.
It got the composer in trouble with Naples’ censors as a regicide too close to home, so it was reset in colonial Boston, in the same era, apparently to everyone’s satisfaction.
San Francisco Opera’s new-to-San Francisco staging, first seen in Sweden several years ago, is set in Stockholm in the lavish 18th century court of the Swedish king.
A brief opening scene shows Gustavus and his prime minister and close friend Renato fencing, with Amelia, Renato’s wife and the object of the king’s love, somewhat improbably working on a painting set before her on an easel. The dramatic aside doubles powerfully with the turbulent overture to explore the close friendship between the king and Renato and establish the doomed love triangle.
Eun Sun Kim’s conducting set the tone for the performance immediately, focusing on both the comic elements and intensity of the score. It was a detailed balancing act between stage and pit that brought the work home with dashing colors.
The singing was first rate, with Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat’s portrayal of Renato taking top honors. His bronzed, facile voice captured his conflicted love for the king and his decision that his wife must die for the infidelity he imagines. His performance of “Eri tu” (“It was you”) condemning Gustavus was the vocal highlight of the night.
Michael Fabiano’s soaring, bright tenor fleshed fully the devil-may-care attitude of the king, though awkward staging in Act 1 made it difficult to hear him initially. He was securely on point for “E scherzo od e follia”(“It is a joke or madness”), his lighthearted response to the sorceress Ulrica’s prophecy of his death, and the Act 2 love duet with Amelia (Lianna Haroutounian), whose heady, brilliant soprano made for a good vocal match.
Ulrica, the sorceress who predicts the tragedy to come, was sung with fiery heft and dark colors by mezzo Judit Kutasi, her voice chilling when foretelling Gustavus’ assassination at the masked ball. On the light side, Mei Gui Zhang’s spiky-voiced coloratura turns produced a larky Oscar, the king’s page.
The chorus in spectacular form provided many narrative high points (a minor quibble with director Leo Muscato‘s having the chorus of king’s supporters jig in place). Samuel and Tom, real-life co-conspirators, were handsomely sung by Adam Lau and Jongwon Han, a current Adler Fellow.
Muscato’s direction, for the most part, is direct and uncluttered, and Federica Parolini’s set designs and Silvia Aymonino’s costumes are stunning, although the mostly white costumes at the masked ball looked slightly clinical.
All in all, this is a “Ballo” to savor.
San Francisco Opera’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” continues at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 11, Sept. 18, Sept. 21, Sept. 24, Sept. 27 and 2 p.m. Sept. 15 at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. For tickets ($28-$426; $27.50 for Sept. 15 livestream), call (415) 864-3330 or visit sfopera.com.
The post Review: San Francisco Opera’s opens 102nd season with appealing ‘Ballo in Maschera’ appeared first on Local News Matters.