[Met Performance] CID:210630



Un Ballo in Maschera
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, June 12, 1967




Un Ballo in Maschera (104)
Giuseppe Verdi | Antonio Somma
Amelia
Leontyne Price

Riccardo
Richard Tucker

Renato
Sherrill Milnes

Ulrica
Nell Rankin

Oscar
Roberta Peters

Samuel
Lorenzo Alvary

Tom
Louis Sgarro

Silvano
Robert Goodloe

Judge
Andrea Velis

Servant
Robert Schmorr

Dance
Patricia Heyes

Dance
Ivan Allen

Dance
Anthony Santiago


Conductor
Thomas Schippers





Performances June 12 through June 22 were presented as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

Review 1:

Review of Speight Jenkins in the Dallas Times-Herald

Price Sparks Met at Festival

With a performance combining great opulence of tone and thrilling dramatic vocalism, Leontyne Price proved the kindling spark for an exciting "Ballo in Maschera" at the Metropolitan Opera. This [inaugural] performance of the Met's contribution to Lincoln Center Festival 67 became one of the best Verdi evenings since the new house opened.

The "Masked Ball," the story of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, is not an easy opera to perform. Its melodic excitement manifests itself best when the soprano generates in fulsome quantity the Italian dramatic sound prescribed

by Verdi. She is given two arias, two duets with the tenor and numerous other set pieces. When she projects a personality which unifies the rather dimmuse plot, the opera lives.

That Miss Price was able to do so Monday night became evident at the beginning of the second act in her great aria, "Ma dall' arido stelo". No movement was excessive; no emotion was over-expressed as she sang with limpid tone and gorgeous phrase. The throaty chest tones, the pure high C and the lyric jump from a low C to a high B flat were negotiated with an ease and a power that can scarcely be exaggerated. From then on to the end of the performance, the Price power, that blend of a perfectly controlled vibrato, wide range and great sweetness of voice carried all before it.

Fortunately, she was not alone. Richard Tucker sang a melodious Riccardo (or Gustav III, depending on which version of the masked ball you like.) In his third act aria, "Ma se m'e forza" the lyrical suavity of his voice filled the house, Mr. Tucker does not sing the coloratura demanded in Act I with the ease and agility of a few years ago, but his second act love duet with Miss Price range with real conviction and dramatic beauty.

Also on the positive side was Sherrill Milnes, the young American baritone whom Dallas heard as the Herald in "Lohengrin" last month. As Renato, the husband of the supposedly guilty Amelia, Milnes sang sonorously and with great dramatic feeling for the text. His Italian seemed a shade too careful, but the characterization was thoughtful with the sound of his voice truly Verdian.

Most surprising of all to this reviewer was the contribution of the conductor, Thomas Schippers After a season of uninspired performances, Schippers conducted "A Masked Ball" that was alive and on fire with the fever that was once his trademark. Schippers' beat was clear and incisive; never has "Ballo," been better shaped.

Roberta Peters sang a pert Oscar, and Nell Rankin, an adequate Ulrica. Lorenzo Alvary and Louis Sgarro were Sam and Tom respectively.

The production, designed by Ita Maximovna in 1962, seemed gloomier than when last presented. "Ballo" is a tragic opera, but it seems hard to know what is gained by having to strain to see the faces of the singers. Withal the scenes in the third act of the royal palace are quite beautiful. Guenther Rennert directed with a rather German approach that makes the opera somewhat heavier than is necessary.

The month of the Lincoln Center Festival '67 was well begun. The Metropolitan offered its finest singers in an opera not presented in the season just passed. When you put Miss Price, Tucker and Mines on the same stage and they are all in good voice, anyone who doesn't enjoy it just doesn't like singing. When you add to the mixture, a conductor who knows and cares about the music he is making, there can be no better opera than what the Metropolitan gave us on Monday night.



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