Un ballo in maschera

Giuseppe Verdi

New Teatro alla Scala Production
In collaboration with Teatro Comunale di Bologna

From 9 to 25 July 2013

Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes intermissions included

Sung in Italian with electronic libretto in Italian, English

Notes on the performancesOpen: It is known that Verdi was forced to move Scribe’s story from Sweden to another location, so that King Gustav would not be seen to be stabbed on stage. The censors sustained that someone in the audience could have followed the example with other kings … The choice fell to Boston, with its Governor Riccardo, a simple Count who could be stabbed without any problems during the masked ball of the title. The unjustly stabbed tenor is a rare figure of a powerful nobleman, altruistic and even torn between a guilty love and profound feelings of friendship: for those who cannot remember the story, he loves, with a love that is requited, the wife of his best friend.

The love of Ballo in maschera, in all its heart-wrenching immensity, has even been compared to that of Tristan und Isolde in spite of the considerable differences. In this opera, there is, for exemple, a conspiracy plot, and a vaguely festive public setting, too.

Perhaps Verdi did not imagine that the America of the future, often up-standing and puritan (or at least seemingly so), could have had points in common with that of the late seventeenth century which he describes. It must have occurred to young director Damiano Michieletto for his new production: actualisation, performance politics, election campaigns and perhaps a witch called Ulrica who resembles certain television preachers that cause multitudes of “worshippers” to fall into a trance.

Riccardo: Marcelo Álvarez (9, 12, 16, 19, 22, 25)
Piero Pretti (15, 20)
Renato: Zeljko Lucic (9, 16, 19, 22, 25)
Gabriele Viviani (12, 15, 20)
Amelia: Sondra Radvanovsky (9, 12, 16, 19, 22)
Oksana Dyka (15, 20, 25)
Ulrica: Marianne Cornetti (9, 12, 16, 19, 22, 25)
Marina Prudenskaya (15, 20)
Oscar: Patrizia Ciofi (9, 12, 15, 16)
Serena Gamberoni (19, 20, 22, 25)
Silvano: Alessio Arduini
Samuel: Fernando Rado
Tom: Simon Lim
Un giudice: Andrzej Glowienka
Un servo d’Amelia: Giuseppe Bellanca

July 2013

€ 13, € 24, € 42, € 66, € 85, € 110, € 165, € 210

09/07 Series A12/07 Series D15/07 Not in subscription16/07 Series B19/07 Series C20/07 Series N Week-end Subs.22/07 Series E25/07 Not in subscription

La Scala Shop suggests
With Callas,
Di Stefano and Gavazzeni.