Un Ballo In Maschera - Verdi Details

Customer Review

This was in the end a disappointing version of one of my favourite Verdi operas.

The biggest problem was the costumes. Verdi's music tells us very clearly that Ulrica is a figure of awe, even fear. It must be very difficult to convey this when dressed like a Christmas turkey. Worst of all was the final scene, the masked ball itself. You get an idea of the costumes here from the cover of the DVD. The costumes were quite literally laughable, which is not at all what is wanted in an assasination scene!

The scenery was fairly bland and apart from the scene in Ulric's cave failed to create any real atmosphere. The acting was also fairly poor.

All this is very frustrating since Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra were excellent and the 3 principals all had very fine voices.