I'm surprised that the commentators have made little of Un Ballo in
Maschera, which has long struck me as being one of the most perfectly
balanced works of musical drama. Having said that, I've often had a problem
with Verdi, with his calculated thetricalisms, oompahpah accompaniments and
overt moralising.
Having said this I get to sing in a couple of Verdi pieces: as a
baritone in the last scene of Rigoletto, in our opera excerpts production;
and (my double life) as Alfredo in the Brinsdisi from La Traviata, in a
local choral society pot-pourri (concerning which I still haven't figured
out how to approach a convincing high Bb from an f-g trill after having
romped through all the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll (19th C style) - if
no-one on this list has any solution to this for me I'll stick to the
written, and unspectacular, F. But, really, this repertoire is the
quintessence of opera!
Another reason Verdi can make me mad is that in Otello he and Boito
actually improve on Shakespeare (IMHO!), but Macbeth (apart from the
choruses) is a mere shadow of its electrifying source (but, to be fair,
Falstaff is (again IMHO) up there, so 2 out of 3 is pretty good!). Or the
king of bland oompah turning out such amazingly dramatic music as the
overture to La Forza del Destino? Like Bruckner, or Spike Milligan, he
seems to give out shlock and inspired genius in equal measure without
knowing the difference. And what is it with all this gloom in Italian
operas - "Hooked on Catharsis" is it? john
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
|
|  |
