Search - Giuseppe Verdi, Herbert von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra :: Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Dreadful and brilliant

montecastello | Dardanelle, Arkansas United States | 04/19/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This was Karajan's last complete studio opera recording (he died the following summer during rehearsals for the Salzburg production for which this recording was preliminarily made). It is an opera in many ways ideally suited to the oddly exaggerated mix of elegance and brutality that K. brought to his later Verdi interpretations (for instance the Don Carlo and the second Aida). It is an interpretation that foregrounds the tenor and greatly diminishes the importance of the soprano. How, you ask, can such a thing be done without violating the nature of the opera? Well, it can't be, but the results are nonetheless compelling and once heard impossible to forget. Domingo is fabulous, offering a Riccardo of Otello like brilliance. The passage immediately prior to the last scene when he signs the papers sending his lover and his friend away is so intense as to risk bombast, but it works and arguably neither K nor Domingo has ever been so exalted. (It's difficult not to read some sort of narcissistic self-portrait in Karajan's presentation of the dying Riccardo lyrically pardoning his murder to the accompaniement of the inevitable harps--this recording with the Vienna Phil. was made in the midst of Karajan's final, sad, and shabby break with the Berlin Philharmonic. Miei figli! But as Amelia, Barstow is not satisfactory either vocally or dramatically and Karajan's support during her solos seems perfunctory. Nucci is, as usual, loud and dull. Sumi Jo, a Karajan protegee, is a delight and the recording is impressive. Like all of Karajan's opera recordings, this one teaches you about aspects of the opera that will always inform your future listening, but if this eccentric, uneven performance were to be your only recording of Un Ballo there is much you would miss out on. If only he had lived long enough to record The Sicilian Vespers--now there is an opera MADE for him!"

Excellent!

L. Flennoy | 02/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the best Ballo's I've heard.! All the principles are in TOP form and sing thier roles convicingly. I know not all opera lovers admire Karajans style of conducting, but for me, this one is the best. Also, check out the DVD with the same cast. Karjan would have been proud."