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Verdi, Un Ballo in Maschera: Soloists, Orchestra Oviedo Filarmonía, Coro de la Ópera de Oviedo, Conductor: Paolo Arrivabeni, Teatro Campoamor de Oviedo 22.01.2009 (JMI)

New Production Ópera de Oviedo

Director. Susana Gómez
Sets: Carmen Castañón
Costumes: Elisa Sanz, Maika Chamorro
Lighting: Eduardo Bravo

Cast:

Riccardo: Giuseppe Gipali
Amelia: Amarilli Nizza
Renato: Ángel Ódena
Ulrica: Elena Manistina
Oscar: Beatriz Díaz
Samuel: Iván García
Tom: Elia Todisco

The Oviedo opera season came to its end with this Verdi masterpiece, but there was little about the performance which could be described as successful.

For some years, Oviedo has been giving productions by important directors from the international scene. This year on the stage of Campoamor Theatre we have seen the work of directors such as Robert Carsen, Emilio Sagi, André Engel and Marianne Clement. It is rather surprising therefore that they decided to close the season with a new production of this Verdi masterwork by the young Asturian  Susana Gómez, whose previous operatic experience has been limited to a couple of works in Oviedo and Gijón. There are many occasions when a theatre needs to take risks, but I don’t believe that this was one of them.

Like any young stage director, Susana Gómez wants  to offer her own vision of Un Ballo in Maschera, but she scarcely gets beneath the surface of the drama. The action is brought almost up to date, as is more and more usual nowadays, and while these transpositions of the action are very attractive to directors, they carry with them the danger that what is shown doesn’t always agree with text or music. A modern reading, if it does not want to remain merely  superficial, must make an enormous effort  to ensure that the text and the action agree, but on this occasion Ms Gómez gave a superficial and incidental reading of the opera.

At the beginning of the opera she makes it clear that she is going to offer the tragedy of King Gustavus as Somma and Verdi originally conceived it. This seems to me a very valid choice, but it would have been good had Ms Gomez remembered that the King (s’avanza il Re) was Gustavus and not  Riccardo. The same could be said of Renato or Ulrica. For Ms Gómez, Ulrica was not a sorceress, but somebody who assisted a birth on stage.  The choir singing “Viva la maga, viva la maga” did not make any sense. The “orrido campo” worked better, with Amelia singing her aria in the outskirts of the city, while she is robbed by outlaws. The scene where Amelia was concealed from her husband was not credible because this young Amelia, attractive and in today’s costumes, would be recognized by anybody, especially by her husband and particularly if her only disguise is a hat.

The scene in Renato’s house is attractive, although I asked myself what a Romanesque  Virgin was doing in the house. I know that we were in Oviedo, but we were supposed to be attending a drama taking place in Sweden. The masked ball was colourful, but was preceded by a ridiculous scene with Gustavus/Riccardo. 

Directing actors is one of the things which is most difficult for any stage director and Susana Gómez does not succeed in this aspect either. The direction of the chorus members was purely routine and how the singers got on depended entirely on their abilities. The character of the King did not come across as a real person,  being devoid of any expression - even to the point of dying standing up until the very last notes of the opera. In summary, this was a modern production from a young director who seems promising, but who needs to study the opera really hard before directing it,  and sadly that did not seem to have been the case on this occasion.

Paolo Arrivabeni was an effective and professional musical director, who could have benefited from more breadth and inspiration on more than one occasion. The tempi  were in general lively and there was good communication between the stage and the pit. The Orchestra gave a note perfect performance, but without too much brightness. The Chorus  is more and more worthy of the name, something which seemed impossible a few years back.

The Count or King, as you prefer, was  the Albanian Giuseppe Gipali. This tenor has a pleasant voice,  very homogenous, but somewhat small. The tessitura does not offer him any problems, but his  big problem lies in his  total lack of expressiveness. He was unable  to communicate even the minimum amount of emotion to the audience and under these circumstances  who is going  to believe  that the attractive Amelia falls in love with him?

Amarilli Nizza was a good Amelia. She is a soprano who has an interesting middle range and rises without problems  to the high zone, although her bottom register is rather lacking for Amelia. This role  requires a soprano spinto, almost dramatic, and she is not fully there. She is expressive, a good actress and  has an attractive figure. She was not too good in  “orrido campo” whereas she was very good singing “Morrò, ma prima in grazia”.

The Catalan baritone  Ángel Ódena  was a rather coarse Renato. He showed enough power, better than on previous occasions, but his  interpretation was based on showing that Renato is a violent character, and was quite short on nuances. His arias were sung forte or fortissimo, and there were  very few moments when he sang softly. Russian Elena Manistina was an outstanding Ulrica.  This is probably the best performance I have seen from her up to now. She has an ample voice, good at the bottom of the tessitura and is a remarkable interpreter.

Asturian Beatriz Diaz was a very good Oscar. There were moments when hers was the best voice in the cast, both in volume and projection, while at other points the voice seemed insignificant in terms of  quality. Her tiny  figure is not going to help her much in this business. The conspirators Sam and Tom  or, better, Ribbing and Horn, were well covered by the Venezuelan Iván García (much better here than he is in the baroque) and Elia Todisco. The rest of secondary roles were below par. Oviedo should pay more attention to these roles.

This was the first performance of a run of five and there was a full house. The only warm applause during the performance was for Amelia in the above mentioned aria. In the final bows, there was more courtesy than enthusiasm, the best reception being for the three ladies. The creative team, headed by  Susana Gómez, was received with some applause and with a very sonorous booing, too loud to be ignored.

Jose M Irurzun

Picture © Fundación Ópera de Oviedo

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