Giuseppe Verdi (ca. 1859)
The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD
In Italian with English subtitles
Not gonna lie . . . I went to see this at the movie theater just for this baritone, and this aria ("Eri tu" / "It was you who stained this soul"):
(I figured I'd never get to see my favorite opera singer in "real life," so this was my birthday present to self . . . well worth it!)
Un Ballo in Maschera ("A Masked Ball") is your typical melodramatic opera - tortured, lovesick hero, swoony heroine, and heroine's jealous husband, all bawling their eyes out until a very dramatic and tragic ending finishes them off. Still a better love story than Twilight. ;) No, really . . . I had cynical expectations for the plot, but it is much better than it first appears. King Gustavo (played by Marcelo Álvarez) is in love with Amelia (Sondra Radvanovsky), who is already married to Gustavo's best friend, Anckarström (Dmitri Hvorostovsky). At the same time, there is a group of citizens planning the king's assassination. Anckarström is devoted to the king and literally prepared to take a bullet for him, when he is betrayed by (guess who!) the man he is trying to save. Amelia, being a weak-willed woman, attempts to distance herself from the king, only to be pursued and won over by him. When Anckarström finds them alone together, he suspects the worse and promises vengeance.
There are no heroes here, only gray characters that make you think (if not altogether sympathize). In the end, it seemed to me that, overall, Anckarström was the more "sympathizable" of the two. Yes, Gustavo is a sensitive, loving guy, but he's still a selfish jerk. He takes advantage of his friend's loyalty and his friend's wife - and when he finally decides to make amends, it is only with the idea of packing Anckarström and Amelia off to a different country (seriously). On top of that, if we are to believe the conspirators, Gustavo is responsible for deaths and other ills that have befallen his subjects.
Anckarström is also horrible, in a different way. He's a calculating perfectionist - a cautious, uptight guy who's met all the responsibilities and duties required of him, and then some. When he finds out he's been rewarded with infidelity, he goes crazy. I'm incredibly biased, but Hvorostovsky stole the show . . . he played his part to perfection, without falling into the trap of overacting. His singing had (and always has) this understated intensity nobody else really matched, and "Eri tu" was even better than the YouTube clip.
The ending was my least favorite part - political correctness in the nineteenth century! Verdi had to portray the ruler in a more or less positive light, so you have Gustavo getting all forgiving and benevolent all of a sudden, and Anckarström , too, repents of his actions. That would have been great, if it had been more convincing and less rushed.
As for this particular, new production - the director David Alden chose a 1920s (30s, 40s?) setting, which highlighted the political side of the story and was actually pretty cool. Some of the choreography and costumes were a bit weird (too many wings), but overall it was more interesting than I expected. Even the minimalist sets worked well on the big screen, much better than on YouTube. The Fall of Icarus painting, which has been talked about a great deal, was perhaps overdone, but not as annoying as some reviewers have thought it.
Finally, with the Live in HD showing, you get cast interviews, opera previews, and behind-the-scenes clips during intermissions, which was nice. I would totally go to another Met Opera "movie"!
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