Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Plácido Domingo (Riccardo), Piero Cappuccilli (Renato), Katia Ricciarelli (Amelia), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Ulrica), Reri Grist (Oscar), William Elvin (Silvano), Gwynne Howell (Samuele), Paul Hudson (Tom), Francis Egerton (Un Giudice), John Carr (Un servo)

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal...

Abbado motivates this traditional Otto Schenk staging using the Swedish setting. Domingo is a marvellously vivid Gustavo, Cappuccilli an implacable Anckarström, while Grist steals the soprano... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Apr 2017
Catalogue No: OA1236D
Label: Opus Arte

Gramophone Magazine

July 2017

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Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Plácido Domingo (Riccardo), Piero Cappuccilli (Renato), Katia Ricciarelli (Amelia), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Ulrica), Reri Grist (Oscar), William Elvin (Silvano), Gwynne Howell (Samuele), Paul Hudson (Tom), Francis Egerton (Un Giudice), John Carr (Un servo)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera Chorus
Claudio Abbado (conductor) & Otto Schenk (director)

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Illicit love, suspicion, deception and supernatural portents of doom lead to a shocking drama at a masked ball in 1790s Sweden. The incomparable Plácido Domingo stars as the dashing King Gustavus III, whose reforms have inspired talk of assassination among the conservative nobility. Katia Ricciarelli is Gustavuss beloved Amelia, married to his closest friend, Anckarström, sung by Piero Cappuccilli. Claudio Abbado conducts the distinguished cast, supported by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Royal Opera Chorus, in Otto Schenks classic production of this Verdi favourite for The Royal Opera. This recording, with English subtitles, is preserved in its original Standard Definition and 4:3 picture format.

NB This product has burnt-in English subtitles and no alternative language-options

Artists

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera Chorus, Claudio Abbado (conductor) & Otto Schenk (director)

Reviews

August 2017

Abbado motivates this traditional Otto Schenk staging using the Swedish setting. Domingo is a marvellously vivid Gustavo, Cappuccilli an implacable Anckarström, while Grist steals the soprano honours from Ricciarelli.

July 2017

What Schenk achieves...is no mean feat: a show in which the main characters meaningfully interact, have credibility and generate sympathy...[Domingo] is enjoying himself as a devil-may-care ruler with a twinkle in both eye and voice...[Cappuccilli] offers a masterclass in what we really mean by ‘Verdi baritone’.

September 2017

Claudio Abbado conducts a performance notable for its flexibility, sense of forward movement and keen balance.

Opera Now June 2017

There's Claudio Abbado's fleet and polished conducting, then Plácido Domingo's suavely sung and acted Gustavus, and Piero Cappuccilli's stentorian Anckarström...Perhaps most interesting is Katia Ricciarelli as Amelia, a role a size too big for her, showing off both her stunningly limpid and velvety soprano and at the same time just how she pushed it to tatters.

New Classics May 2017

The Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House are intelligently conducted by the great Claudio Abbado in this classic 1975 production directed by Otto Schenk, with traditional costumes and attractive sets. This is one of the finest productions of one of Verdi's best operas, with outstanding vocal and acting performances

September 2017

Abbado guides the singers through Verdi’s amalgam of melodrama, the supernatural and raw passion with a flexibility that keeps the music close to the drama and makes it sound more than usually through-composed.

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Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

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