[Met Performance] CID:302520



Un Ballo in Maschera
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, November 14, 1990




Un Ballo in Maschera (198)
Giuseppe Verdi | Antonio Somma
Amelia
Andrea Gruber

Riccardo
Luciano Pavarotti

Renato
Juan Pons

Ulrica
Alexandrina Milcheva

Oscar
Harolyn Blackwell

Samuel
Richard Vernon

Tom
Jeffrey Wells

Silvano
Dwayne Croft

Judge
Charles Anthony

Servant
Bernard Fitch


Conductor
James Levine







Review 1:

Review of John Rockwell in The New York Times

The Wednesday evening performance at the Metropolitan Opera of Piero Fraggioni's new production of "Ballo in Maschera" marked the latest career step of Andrea Gruber, singing her first Amelia anywhere.

Miss Gruber, an American soprano in her mid-20's, counts as the latest in the line of bright hopes who have come along in recent years to address the spinto repertory, meaning a weight of voice and role heavier than lyric but lighter than dramatic. She has had hardly any major stage experience, and all of it has come this year: Verdi's "Forza del Destino" at the Scottish Opera, the Third Norn in Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" at the Met, and this "Ballo."

It's a promising voice: big, steady and basically pleasing, although there was some breathiness around the break on Wednesday. She also needs coaching and experience to deepen her command of language and the specificity of musical and dramatic moments. (She could learn much about Italian declamation from her Wednesday tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, but so could most singers.)

Miss Gruber's vocal fundamentals seem firmly in place, however. And from her second-act duet with Mr. Pavarotti and the subsequent trio with him and the rock-solid baritone of Juan Pons, she held her own and then some.

The cast, which was otherwise mostly the same as on [the first] night, also included the Bulgarian mezzo Alexandrina Michaela's first Ulrica at the Met - a bland and underpowered job.



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