Customer Reviews

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera / Domingo, Ricciarelli, Bruson, Raimondi, Gruberova, Abbado

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here we are! We have in front of us a truly great recording!
This "Un ballo" should be in every Verdi fan's collector! IT is true that "Un ballo in maschera" has many wonderful recordings. Leinsdorf's (with Bergonzi, Price and Merrill), Votto's (with Callas, di Stefano and the great Gobbi), Muti's (with Domingo as in this one, Arroyo and Cappuccilli), Solti's (with Pavarotti, M. Price and Bruson) and so on. No need to mention all of them here. Every one of them has many good and some bad points. There is not a definitive recording for this work, although many of its recordings come pretty close. As does this one, in my opinion.

Domingo as the tortured by Love Riccardo, gives us an amazing portrayal of the hero just as he did for Muti some years earlier. His voice is in pretty good form, hits with easiness all the high notes and performs wonderfully.
Ricciarelli as Amelia is pretty good indeed. Maybe her voice cannot take the pressure of some high notes but she gives to Amelia a vulnerability that no other soprano (except surely Callas) has given to the role. She is superb and she convinces us for her agony and pain all the time. Her prayer to her husband ("Morro ma prima in grazia") is one of the best all-around.
No need to praise Bruson. He is one of the best baritones ever not only for his rich and wonderful voice but also for his acting skills. He is excellent and not to be missed in this part.
Obrastzova's dark voice suits very well the role of Ulrica, but personally I prefer Barbieri's performance of the role in the Votto set.
The rest of the cast is quite adequate (though I agree that Gruberova is not very happy in the role of the page Oscar) and Abbado's conducting is very well-planned and executed. Indees Barvo to all!
All in all, I must recommend this set to everyone who loves this Verdi's masterpiece.

Un Ballo in Maschera is one of Verdi's most wonderful operas and should have gained the popularity as his Big Three. This recording of Ballo is very dramatic mainly because of Abbado's conducting. You can hear every detail of this Verdi's masterpiece. Listen to the whole Act II and you'll understand what I mean. Domingo is perfect as Riccardo. Ricciarelli may not be the most sumptuous Amelia like Price or Arroyo but her characterization is wonderful and comes close to the ideal Amelia. Only Callas is better in communicating the anxiety and despair of this doomed character. Renato Bruson proves again that he is the Verdian baritone of the generation. Obraztsova is a good dark-voiced Ulrica. The only weak link here is Oscar of Gruberova. She does not feel comfortable with the music and lacks the charming in her singing. For this bargain price, it is the best buy of Un Ballo out there.

I think the other reviewers are much too severe with Ricciarelli, it's true that she doesn't have the spinto sound ideal for Amelia, but under studio conditions she copes well and is a rather touching and vulnerable heroine. Of course there are greater Amelias like Callas and Price (both of them, Leontyne and Margaret), but Ricciarelli is never less than fine. Domingo is much better here than in the Muti recording, though the last aria still taxes him too much for comfort. Renato Bruson is the commanding Renato, drop dead gorgeous voice, impeccable sense of style> Verdi singing at it's best. I agree though that Gruberova was not at her best as Oscar. As for Abbado, well, this is the finest Verdi conducting since Giulini or possibly De Sabata. His fiery, throughly idiomatic reading would be worth hearing even with a much lesser cast, as it is, I rate it as the all around most satisfying Ballo. If Callas and Di Stefano had only had a better conductor...

First of all there is Claudio Abbado, the finest Verdi conductor of our time. His insights and sense of verdian line are a wonder, no other Ballo in Maschera is better conducted. Placido Domingo is better suited to Alvaro than Riccardo, but his handsome tenor is always welcome. Ricciarelli is very good as Amelia and Bruson is formidable as Renato. All in all this may be the best Ballo in stereo.

Critics, can't stand them! I've heard several recordings of Verdi's early and still staged opera Un Ballo In Maschera "A Masked Ball". Prominent recordings include Maria Callas' 57 recording, EMI with Martina Arroyo, Placido Domingo ansd Piero Cappucilli, one with Pavoratti and Margaret Price and the Leontyne Price, Carlo Bergonzi, Robert Merrill and Reri Grist recording as well as others in the market. This one, though, through sheer beauty of singing and dramatic power from everyone involved, including Maestro Claudio Abbado, has turned out to be the all time best recording.

What makes this recording so great is that it is possibly the most powerfully performed recording. Thanks to the modern sound and re-mastering on CD, the sound is clear, crisp and electrifying. The voices of Placido Domingo and Katia Ricciarelli are tailor-suited for romantic roles. Here, as the love-struck lovers, Domingo and Ricciarelli offer us the same grand acting and singing style they so famously employed in the Zefferelli 1986 film of Verdi's Otello. Their voices are sumptuous, dare I say erotic ? And so beautiful and dramatically gratifying. No non-sense. They get into character quite well. Poor Katia Ricciarelli. Why is it everytime I read about her singing through other reviews someone is bashing her voice ? Her voice has been called "harsh, wobbly, weak in the high register". If it is true that she has vocal problems, then I'd like to see these same critics try to sing the role of Amelia for more than one night in a row. Verdi opera is taxing, vocally draining and difficult to sing. But Miss Ricciarelli uses her best voice and her best acting talents. She has more generous chest and middle register but her high register is nothing to be scared of. It's lovely. It is true that perhaps this role is better suited to lyrico spintos like Leontyne Price and Martina Arroyo. But Katia Ricciarelli is superb irregardless. Placido Domingo is doing his usually terrific job. I can't say enough good things about him. His voice is warm, masculine, rich, dark, elegant and passionate. The other singers are to die for. Renato Bruson may be a little less impassioned and more cool than the others but he is doing as good a job as he can. However, I tend to prefer Piero Cappucilli in the role. But even Bruson is first-rate in this recording. Ruggero Raimondi, as always, sings with bravura and earthiness. Gruberova as Oscar sings with pretty lyricism and easy coloratura. Elena Obraztsova sings Ulrica with even more grandeur than the part is usually sung with. Ultimately, it's a role for a contralto and to this day no other singerother than Marian Anderson has done the role justice. But great Ulricas include Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry and even Miss Obraztsova. She is electrifying! And Claudio Abbado conducts with supreme musicianship. No doubt about it. This is the one.

I was fortunate enogh to see "Ballo" in two first-rate productions - one in the Moscow's Bolshoi (With Zurab Sotkilava, Yuriy Mazurok, Makvala Kasrashvilli and Yelena Obraztsova) and the other in the Met (With Pavarotti, Pons and Voight). In this recording Abbado is conducting with style, but without extra sentimental effects. Domingo sounds fresh and surprisingly dark - a close to ideal Riccardo. Bruson's rich baritone works well for Renato, and he is one of the best singing actors of the modern operatic stage. Yelena Obraztsova is the best Ulrica on record. There is charm in Gruberova's Oscar and Raimondi's Samuel. Ricciarelli is the only unfortunate member of the cast. Her voice sounds much worse in the upper register. In the first act trio you can barely hear her next to the powerfull voices of Obraztsova and Domingo. She, however sings a more or less solid "Morro, ma prima un grazia".

This 1981 Un ballo in maschera has always been considered one of Abbado's most successful Verdi recordings, along with his Macbeth from the same period. For the moment let's leave aside the only questionable cast member, Katia Ricciarelli as Amelia. The role of Riccardo suits Domingo's voice very well, and although he lacks the panache and swagger of Pavarotti, who was born to sing the role, this is a fine, involving performance. Bruson also sang Renato for Solti a few years after this recording, and in his day was considered the leading Verdi baritone from Italy. Admirable as his work is, I must confess to being allergic to his dry voice. Of the other roles, Obraztsova as Ulrica is more Slavic than Italian, but her tone rings firm and powerful. Gruberova sings Oscar in fine voice but sounds neither young nor innocent (not to mention merry).

I always look to the conducting of an opera first and foremost, and here Abbado is variable. He attends to detail very well and gets excellent playing from his La Scala forces, but he seriously lacks sweep and passion--listen to the great Act 2 love duet, the heart of the opera, and everything is well controlled without carrying the listener away. The same flaw appears at other critical moments. Still, Abbado is a major conductor and far outstrips Leinsdorf and Votto in their rival sets; I prefer Solti, despite his occasional coarseness, because I do feel carried away by his conducting of the love music.

Now for Ricciarelli. I don't think she would be the major reason to accept or reject this recording if it weren't that greater sopranos, particularly Callas, Leontyne Price, and Caballe (in a live performance on Opera d'Oro) were on fire when they sang Amelia. On her own, she's dramatic and involved, and her voice, always variable, is in good sahpe here. As others have noted, Margaret Price sings the role with far greater control and musical beauty for Solti, but Ricciarelli is more convincing dramatically.

I think I've given a resonably objective view of this production, which has been DG's flagship Un Ballo for over two decades. It's in excellent sound and now sells at a bargain price. The pluses add up to an admirable, if not exactly inspired version.

Excellent orchestra, sound and production. As a whole this is the best recorded Ballo i've ever heard. Also, Elena Obraztsova is the best Ulrica on record (an absolutely breathtaking performance).

I find this performance of Ballo to be a disappointment. Ricciarelli is pressed pretty much to her limit in the role of Amelia, getting wobbly on sustained high notes. I find her performance rather distressing, especially compared with Margaret Price's performance on the Solti set. Emotional, but I fear for her voice as I listen to this. The phrasing, too, is rather odd.....also with Domingo, adding stacatti at strange moments and going off pitch.
I don't think Domingo was in his best voice, either, when this set was made. Again, some odd phrasing which I don't normally associate with him. His singing, however, is rich and well detailed.
Gruberova is startling in the role of Oscar. Supposedly this great coloratura can sing almost anything.....by she sounds terribly wobbly and vocally stressed by the role. I saw her in Vienna as Linda di Chamonix a few years back and she was quite good. She is sadly out of voice on this recording.
Obratsova I quite enjoyed in this role. The voice is not beautiful and it works well as Ulrica.
Bruson is my favorite baritone and I find his voice incomparably beautiful....even though I like his performance on the Solti set even better.
Abbado is great and I love the thrust and gusto of the bass drums. Very nice!

This is one of my Verdi's favourites. In my everlasting search for good recordings of this opera I've found highlights of this version and I guess it has different points of dissimilitude: There is no equilibrium between male and female voices, for example, while Bruson is dramatic and powerful in certain passages, Obratszova does not find an adequate full color and vocal range. Moreover, I don't know how Abbado choose Ricciarelli for this work, She lacks an entire dramma personality, her Amelia looses the way since first words. I would like to interchange opinions about this recording and other similars with people around the world. Write me you'll find the address here. Thank you.