Search - Verdi, Toscanini, NBC :: Un Ballo in Maschera

Toscanini's Masked Ball

Robert E. Nylund | Ft. Wayne, Indiana United States | 04/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Verdi's "A Masked Ball" was one of seven complete operas that Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) conducted with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The recording is taken from two NBC broadcast concerts in January 1954 in Carnegie Hall, only a few months before Toscanini announced his retirement. Portions of the recording were taken from remakes in June 1954, also in Carnegie Hall, which proved to be the last recordings Toscanini ever made.



As Toscanini approached his 87th birthday, his health was failing and he was beginning to have trouble with his legendary memory. Reportedly, rehearsals for the performances were stretched over a number of weeks as Toscanini worked with the soloists and the Robert Shaw Chorale to achieve his usual very high standards.



As in all of Toscanini's opera recordings, the Maestro was fortunate to have some very fine singers, including Herva Nelli, Jan Peerce, Virginia Haskins, Clarame Turner, and Robert Merrill. Typically, he was able to get his singers to sing better than they usually did. He was, of course, particularly fond of the American tenor Jan Peerce, who he considered his favorite in his later years. Peerce's singing is particularly poignant, lyrical, and moving; it is he who plays the doomed governor who is eventually murdered during the masked ball.



Toscanini used Verdi's censored text which moved the story from its original Swedish setting to the colony of Massachusetts. There is, therefore, a "farewell to America," which Peerce sings as he dies.



Despite using Carnegie Hall, the RCA engineers placed the microphones very close to the singers and orchestra, resulting in very little reverberation (much like the situation in NBC Studio 8-H, where most of the NBC Symphony concerts took place from 1937 to 1950). This was presumably done to minimize picking up the audience's coughs and other noises. However, the fidelity is quite good and the singers come through very clearly with excellent diction.



The overall performance is quite powerful throughout. There is considerable emotion and drama, too, as Toscanini must have recognized this would probably be the last full opera he conducted. Actually, the very last music he conducted was portions of Verdi's "Aida," again during the remakes in June 1954."

Toscanini magic

Constantin Declercq | 11/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"À côté de la fameuse trilogie populaire verdienne, on peut aussi voir une autre trilogie, plus ambiguë, voire même maudite, celle formée par «Le Bal masqué», «La Force du destin» et «Don Carlos». Ces trois opéras, amplement représentés dans la discographie sont de structure plus complexe que d'autres et au bout du compte il est quasiment impossible d'en trouver une version réellement satisfaisante. «Le Bal masqué» de Toscanini de 1954 est cependant celle qui se rapprocherait le plus de la référence. La démonstration orchestrale sans faille fait qu'on entend tout et que tous les détails se détachent avec précision. Toscanini réussit aussi le tour de force à donner une unité d'ensemble à cet opéra à la fois léger et dramatique sans que cela se fasse au détriment ni de la légèreté ni du drame. C'est un des rares chefs à vraiment faire sentir l'ambiguïté de ce drame exacerbé par la légèreté. C'est pour cette raison que sa version est un véritable joyau car les chanteurs sont très discutables. Comme souvent dans les enregistrements de Toscanini pour la NBC (surtout tardifs comme ici), nous avons des seconds couteaux. Les hommes sont désastreux, surtout Riccardo. Les femmes le sont plutôt moins."

Fascinating but flawed performance of "Ballo"

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 09/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This broadcast performance of "Ballo in Maschera," like the Tullio Serafin studio recording of 1943, follows Verdi's tempos more closely than other, later versions. Like the Serafin, it is fairly well-sung with a few flaws. Unlike the Serafin, it is conducted much closer to score tempos but the orchestra is too far forward, sometimes obscuring the voices and giving undue prominence to the orchestra when it should be more subservient to the singers.



A perfect case in point is the duet "O qual soave brivido." In the score, Verdi has marked the accompanying string passages to be played staccato in a "biting" manner behind Riccardo's lines. Most modern recordings bury the strings so much (as in the Solti version) that you don't even hear them. Serafin brings them out just right. But Toscanini, with the orchestra in front of the tenor, makes them sound forte instead of piano. At the climaxes of Acts I and II, the massed orchestral sound virtually buries the singers.



Of the cast, all sing well, though in my opinion Robert Merrill's Renato is a shade under-characterized as usual, only "Eri tu" coming across with any drama. How I wish that Toscanini had been able to use Leonard Warren in this important role! Herva Nelli sings with accuracy, drama and great beauty of tone; her opening line in the Act II aria, "Ecco l'orrido campo," is delivered without any holding or exaggeration of the first high G in the line, as is usually the case in performances. Elsewhere, she is excellent, as are Jan Peerce (Riccardo), Virginia Haskins (Oscar) and Claramae Turner (Ulrica).



This recording has good acoustics, having been recorded live in Carnegie Hall instead of the notorious Studio 8-H. But because of Toscanini's queer balances, it remains more of a hothouse performance than his recordings of "Otello," "Falstaff" (1937 version) or "Aida," all of which are excellent despite occasional cast lapses. I still recommend it as the only "Ballo" besides Serafin's that is worth owning, however."