UN BALLO IN MASCHERA [Gustavus III]
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Opera in three acts in Italian
Libretto: Antonio Somma
Premièr at Apollo Theatre, Rome – 17 February 1859
25, 28† November - 03 December 1961
Teatro Comunale, Bologna
OPENING PERFORMANCE OF TEATRO COMUNALE DI BOLOGNA
Conductor: Oliviero de Fabritiis
Chorus master: Gaetano Riccitelli
Stage director: Aldo M. Vassallo
Scene and costumes: C.M. Cristini (from Teatro San
Carlo di Napoli)
Count Riccardo Governor of Warwick (Gustavus III) CARLO BERGONZI tenor
Amelia LEYLA GENCER soprano Renato Secretary to the Governor (Anckarstroem) MARIO ZANASI baritone
Samuele (Count Ribbing) enemy of the Governer ALESSANDRO MADDALENA bass
Tomaso (Count Horn) enemy of the Governer GIOVANNI FOIANI bass
Silvano a sailor (Cristian) FRANCO BORDONI baritone
Oscar a page DORA GATTA soprano
Ulrica a fortune-teller (Arvidson) ADRIANA LAZZARINI mezzo-soprano
Un guidice ANGELO MERCURIALI
Un servo d’Amelia LUIGI RONCHI
Time: Boston (USA) or Sweden
Place: End of Eighteenth
Century or 1792
† Recording date
Photos © Maria Jose MAS MARQUES, Barcelona
OPERA MAGAZINE
1962 February
OPERA MAGAZINE
1962 November
Bologna. The third
and last opera of the season was Un
Ballo in Maschera, conducted in an opulent fashion by Gavazzeni. Carlo
Bergonzi was musically and dramatically effective as Riccardo. He was ably
supported by Leyla Gencer, who has now become a very fine artist, and her
interpretation of Amelia's role was first-class. Mario Zanasi gave a polished
performance as Renato, Maria Manni Jottini was a pert Oscar, and Adriana
Lazzarini was careful not to play Ulrica as a latter-day Azucena. Antonio
Cassinelli and Alessandro Maddalena were the effective Sam and Tom. Maestrini
was again the producer and Colonello the designer.
OPERA NEWS
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA
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NEWS ARCHIVES related with Gencer’s performances
Opera News - Un Ballo in Maschera
... November
28, 1961, this performance (previously available on Myto and now reissued)
features two big-name stars in the leading roles — Leyla Gencer and Carol ...COMPLETE RECORDING
1961.11.28
Recording Excerpts [1961.11.28]
Prelude Act I Scene I
Posa in pace Act
I Scene I
La rivedra nell'estasi Act I Scene I
Alla vita che t'arride Act I Scene I
Volta la terrea fronte Act I Scene I
Ogni cura si doni al diletto Act I Scene I
Zitti … l'incanto non dessi turbare Act I Scene II
Re dell'abisso, affrettati Act I Scene II
Che v'agita così? Act I Scene II
Della citta all'occaso Act I Scene II
Su, profetessa, monta il treppie Act I Scene II
Di' tu se fedele Act I Scene II
Orsu, amici Act
I Scene II
E' scherzo od e follia Act I Scene II
Finisci il vaticinio Act I Scene II
Prelude Act II
Scene I
Ecco l'orrido campo Act II
Ma dall'arido stelo divulsa Act II
Teco io sto Act
II
Ahime! S'appressa alcun Act II
Seguitemi Act II
Ve', se di notte qui colla sposa Act II
A tal colpa e nulla il pianto Act III Scene I
Morro, ma prima in grazia Act III Scene I
Alzati! la tuo figlio Act III Scene I
Alzati … Eri tu che macchiavi
Siam soli udite Act
III Scene I
Dunque l'onta di tutti sol una Act III Scene I
D'una grazia vi supplico Act III Scene I
Il messaggio entri Act III Scene I
Di che fulgor Act
III Scene II
Forse la soglia attinse Act III Scene II
Ma se m'e forza perderti Act III Scene II
Saper vorreste Act
III Scene III
Fervono amori e danze Act III Scene III
Ah! perche qui? Fuggite Act III Scene III
Ella e pura Act III Scene III
Recording Excerpts [1961.11.25]
Amici miei.. soldat… la riverda nell’estasi Act I Scene I
Alla vita che t'arride Act I Scene I
Volta la terrea fronte Act I Scene I
Zitti... l'incanto non dèssi turbare … Re dell'abisso Act I Scene I
Di' tu se fedele Act I Scene I
E' scherzo od è follia Act I Scene I
Ecco l'orrido campo ove s'accoppia Act II
Non sai tu che se l'anima Act II
Morrò, ma prima in grazia Act III Scene I
Alzati; là tuo figlio … Eri tu che macchiavi ... Act III Scene I
Forse la soglia attinse … Ma se m'è forza perderti … Act III Scene II
Ah! perché qui! Fuggite Act III Scene III
FROM CD BOOKLET
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA
Paris: January 14, 1858. A large crowd had gathered before the Opéra to see the arrival of Napoleon III and the Empress for the Imperial Gala. Just as their carriage reached the Rue le Pelletier, three explosions were heard. Carnage, screams, corpses. Eventually 156 casualties were counted. Both Napoleon and the Empress were unharmed, although the bombs had exploded in their immediate vicinity. The Police Commissioner pleaded with the imperial couple nevertheless to attend the performance, in order not to cause further uproar. The perpetrator was later identified as Felice Orsini, an Italian aristocrat who wanted thereby to further the cause of Italian unification. Verily the very worst moment to write an opera about the assassination of a king - in a theatre, what's more. The whole thing was to be called "La Vendetta in Domino" and had been commissioned by the Teatro Carlo Naples. Now Naples, too, had every reason to be wary of regicide. Just one year previously the Kind had been attacked with a bayonet by one of his own soldiers. The Naples Chief of Police decided therefore to nip this particular opera in the bud. As Verdi put it: "Chance the protagonist into a lord, taking away any idea of sovereignity. Change the wife into a sister. Modify the fortune teller's scene, transferring it to a time when people believed in such things. No ball!! The murder must be off-stage. Cut the scene of the drawing of the lots, etc. etc. Therefore, no opera."
The San Carlo management decided thereupon to draft a new libretto for the music, in order to meet the censor's requirements but Verdi flatly refused to tolerate an "Adelia degli Adiman", set in 14th century Florence. Eventually the whole matter was called off, an out-of- court-settlement was agreed upon and Verdi was free to offer his opera to other, less politically circumspect, houses. He contacted the Teatro Apollo in Rome, but now the Papal censors started meddling with the libretto, insisting, among other points, that the opera be set in a non- European country. As a second litigation case would have been scandalous and ridiculous, Verdi decided to acquiesce, and the premiere duly took place on February 17, 1859. Despite 30 curtain calls, flowers etc, the opera was not really a success. that season it was given only six performances. The first foreign performance was in Lisbon on April 15, 1860. It was first heard in America at the New York Academy of Music on February 111, 1861. Lilli Lehmann (who some years previously had sung Oscar in Italian in Berlin) was the first Metropolitan Amelia, where this Italian opera about the assassination of a Swedish Kind who had metamorphosed into a Cavalier governor of a Puritan settlement in New England was sung in German. After four performances "Ein Maskenball" disappeared from the Met. "Un Ballo in Maschera" was first sung there on February 23, 1903.
One of the main functions - nay obligations - of private recording ventures is to rectify the sins and omissions of the commercial companies when documenting careers of important singers - and a lot of sins and omissions there are. The two great divas of the 1950s and 60s - Callas and Tebaldi - captured public attention to such a degree that the mighty recording companies were loath to venture further afield. Virtually a whole generation of important singers were relegated to undeserved secondary status. Leyla Gencer's career - and versatility - is indeed something to marvel at. Born in 1924 in Ankara of Turkish/Polish parents, she studied with Elvira de Hidalgo, making her debut in 1950 in Ankara as Santuzza. Subsequently she continued her studies with the legendary Giannina Arangi- Lombardi as well as Apollo Granforte. She made her Italian debut in 1954 at the San Carlo in Naples as Butterfly. That same season she also sang Tatjana. Her rise to fame was fast. Soon followed Charlotte in "Werther", Agathe in "Freischütz" (with Renata Scotto as Ännchen!), Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini), Blanche in the world premiere of Poulenc's "Les Dialogues des Carmélites" (Gencer's La Scala debut in 1957) the world premiere of Pizetti's "Assassinio nella Cattedrale" (La Scala, 1958), Marguerita and Elena in Boito's "Mefistofele", Renata in Prokoviev's "The Fiery Angel", Lisa in "Pique Dame", "Figaro" Countess in Glyndebourne, Gluck's "Alceste", Monteverdi's Ottavia in "L'Incoronazione di Poppea", Mozart's Elettra, Elisabetta in Rossini's "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra not to mention the central - and not so central - roles in the Verdi, Donizetti and Bellini repertoire. It was Leyla Gencer who first rediscovered the vocal jewels hiding in such works as "Lucrezia Borgia", "Maria Stuarda", Beatrice di Tenda", "Belisario", Roberto Devereux" and "La Straniera". Her career took her to the Bolshoi Theatre, the Leningrad Opera, Stockholm, Warsaw, Brussels and Rio de Janeiro. Leyla Gencer knows her worth. Asked about "her greatest success" she replied with inimitable poise and grandezza: "The enthusiasm of the public was such that I only had great successes". "What about dream roles?" "I was fortunate in being able and allowed to sing everything I wanted to." History made amends after all; it seems.
The San Carlo management decided thereupon to draft a new libretto for the music, in order to meet the censor's requirements but Verdi flatly refused to tolerate an "Adelia degli Adiman", set in 14th century Florence. Eventually the whole matter was called off, an out-of- court-settlement was agreed upon and Verdi was free to offer his opera to other, less politically circumspect, houses. He contacted the Teatro Apollo in Rome, but now the Papal censors started meddling with the libretto, insisting, among other points, that the opera be set in a non- European country. As a second litigation case would have been scandalous and ridiculous, Verdi decided to acquiesce, and the premiere duly took place on February 17, 1859. Despite 30 curtain calls, flowers etc, the opera was not really a success. that season it was given only six performances. The first foreign performance was in Lisbon on April 15, 1860. It was first heard in America at the New York Academy of Music on February 111, 1861. Lilli Lehmann (who some years previously had sung Oscar in Italian in Berlin) was the first Metropolitan Amelia, where this Italian opera about the assassination of a Swedish Kind who had metamorphosed into a Cavalier governor of a Puritan settlement in New England was sung in German. After four performances "Ein Maskenball" disappeared from the Met. "Un Ballo in Maschera" was first sung there on February 23, 1903.
One of the main functions - nay obligations - of private recording ventures is to rectify the sins and omissions of the commercial companies when documenting careers of important singers - and a lot of sins and omissions there are. The two great divas of the 1950s and 60s - Callas and Tebaldi - captured public attention to such a degree that the mighty recording companies were loath to venture further afield. Virtually a whole generation of important singers were relegated to undeserved secondary status. Leyla Gencer's career - and versatility - is indeed something to marvel at. Born in 1924 in Ankara of Turkish/Polish parents, she studied with Elvira de Hidalgo, making her debut in 1950 in Ankara as Santuzza. Subsequently she continued her studies with the legendary Giannina Arangi- Lombardi as well as Apollo Granforte. She made her Italian debut in 1954 at the San Carlo in Naples as Butterfly. That same season she also sang Tatjana. Her rise to fame was fast. Soon followed Charlotte in "Werther", Agathe in "Freischütz" (with Renata Scotto as Ännchen!), Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini), Blanche in the world premiere of Poulenc's "Les Dialogues des Carmélites" (Gencer's La Scala debut in 1957) the world premiere of Pizetti's "Assassinio nella Cattedrale" (La Scala, 1958), Marguerita and Elena in Boito's "Mefistofele", Renata in Prokoviev's "The Fiery Angel", Lisa in "Pique Dame", "Figaro" Countess in Glyndebourne, Gluck's "Alceste", Monteverdi's Ottavia in "L'Incoronazione di Poppea", Mozart's Elettra, Elisabetta in Rossini's "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra not to mention the central - and not so central - roles in the Verdi, Donizetti and Bellini repertoire. It was Leyla Gencer who first rediscovered the vocal jewels hiding in such works as "Lucrezia Borgia", "Maria Stuarda", Beatrice di Tenda", "Belisario", Roberto Devereux" and "La Straniera". Her career took her to the Bolshoi Theatre, the Leningrad Opera, Stockholm, Warsaw, Brussels and Rio de Janeiro. Leyla Gencer knows her worth. Asked about "her greatest success" she replied with inimitable poise and grandezza: "The enthusiasm of the public was such that I only had great successes". "What about dream roles?" "I was fortunate in being able and allowed to sing everything I wanted to." History made amends after all; it seems.
