Verdi: Ballo In Maschera

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Great Opera Recordings GiuseppeVERDIUn Ballo in MascheraAn opera in three acts to a libretto by Antonio Somma, based on Scribe’s Gustave III, ou le bal masqué. Riccardo Beniamino Gigli Renato Gino Bechi Amelia Maria Caniglia Ulrica Fedora Barbieri Oscar Elda Ribetti Silvano Nicola Niccolini Samuel Tancredi Pasero Tom Ugo Novelli Un Giudice Blando GiustiChorus and Orchestra of the Rome Opera HouseConducted by Tullio SerafinRecorded on 33 sides by Italian HMV, Opera House, Rome30th June, 1st, 4th, 6th and 7th July 1943Matrices: 2BA 5487/97, 5500/05, 5508/18, 5525/29Catalogue: DB9075/91 GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901)Un Ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) "In the end it all depends on a libretto. A libretto, a libretto and the opera is made!" Verdi (in a letter of 1865) Verdi’s comment on the art of his librettists, quoted above, seems surprising in view of the difficulties encountered in 1858, when he and Somma were preparing the text for Un ballo in maschera. The story, based on historical fact, was clearly too sensitive for the authorities in Naples, where the opera’s première was originally to take place, culminating as it does with the assassination of a king by one of his courtiers. Even with the changes to the characters and plot that Verdi was prepared to make, negotiations foundered and the project was abandoned, at least as far as Naples was concerned. Fortunately, in Rome things fared better and after further amendments, such as re-setting the story in Boston, Massachusetts, production of the opera went ahead and it was performed to tremendous public acclaim. So it has remained and, while the opera has never been as familiar in the world’s opera houses as, say, Il trovatore or Aida, it displays the growing musical maturity of Verdi’s middle period; it has been a vehicle for great singers of each later generation, offering as it does some of his most winning melodies and several thrillingly grand scenes. The soloists on this recording, who assembled in Rome in 1943, find the great sweep of the tragic plot very much to their taste under the bâton of Maestro Tullio Serafin. At the centre of their group is Gigli, surely the most popular Italian tenor of his era, whose affection for the rôle of Riccardo is evident. In conversational exchanges he shows an easy familiarity, even to the extent of occasional laxity over note values; but this is a small price to pay for his generosity of tone and the warmth that he brings to his solos, particularly the romance of the third act. Maria Caniglia is a worthy partner for him. Of the recordings that they made together, it is in this Ballo in maschera that they are best matched - a unity perhaps stemming from their performances of the opera at La Scala in 1941. In the gallows scene Caniglia is amazingly vivid, her fear almost palpable; she may hav