Ballopalooza!

With the Met season soon to finish, I am sure the typical parterre reader (pictured) will want to unwind with a little after party/masked ball. And so Coloraturafan has unlocked his vault to share a selection of videos of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera.

I tried to put together a collection of performances that had not already been uploaded in complete format on YouTube. My special treat in the collection below is a video of the great Verdi tenor Carlo Bergonzi singing this opera in concert in 1989. Of course, his earlier video from Tokyo 1967 is superior in every respect; but this later performance is another document of this great tenor singing one of his finest roles.

So sit back relax and party with Riccardo and the gang, with the help of our friend Verdi.

Orange 2013
Conductor – Alain Altinoglu
Riccardo – Ramón Vargas
Renato – Lucio Gallo
Samuele – Nicolas Courjal
Tom – Jean Teitgen
Silvano – Paul Kong
Amelia – Kristin Lewis
Ulrica Arvidson – Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo
Oscar – Anne-Catherine Gillet

Caracas 1981
Conductor – Giuseppe Morelli
Riccardo – Veriano Luchetti
Renato – Antonio Salvadori
Amelia – Sylvia Sass
Oscar – Rosita del Castillo
Ulrica – Stella Silva
Samuel – Louis Lebherz
Tom – Eric Halfvarson
Silvano – Yunis Zujur

Las Palmas 1991
Conductor – Filippo Zigante
Amelia – Adelisa Tabiadon
Riccardo – Giacomo Aragall
Renato – Alexandru Agache
Oscar – Elena Baggiore
Ulrica – Viorica Cortez

Bologna 1989
Conductor – Gustav Kuhn
Riccardo – Luciano Pavarotti
Renato – Paolo Coni
Amelia – Maria Chiara
Ulrica – Viorica Cortez
Oscar – Patrizia Pace
Silvano – Giuseppe Riva
Samuele – Ferruccio Furlanetto
Tom – José García
Un Giudice – Bruno Bulgarelli
Un servo – Walter Bright

Paris 1981
Conductor – Jean-Claude Casadesus
Gustavo III – José Carreras
Ankastrom – Leo Nucci
Amelia – Katia Ricciarelli
Ulrica – Viorica Cortez
Oscar – Danièle Perriers
Cristiano – Philippe Duminy
Minister for Justice – Christian Jean
Count Ribbing – Fernand Dumont
Count Horn – Pierre Thau
Servant – Jean-Philippe Courtis

Paris 2007
Conductor – Semyon Bychkov
Riccardo – Marcelo Álvarez
Renato – Ludovic Tézier
Amelia – Angela Brown
Ulrica – Elena Manistina
Oscar – Camilla Tilling
Silvano – Jean-Luc Ballestra
Samuele – Michail Schelomianski
Tom – Scott Wilde
Un Giudice – Pascal Mesle
Un servo – Nicolas Marie

Chicago 1980
Conductor – John Pritchard
Riccardo – Luciano Pavarotti
Renato – Leo Nucci
Amelia – Renata Scotto
Ulrica – Patricia Payne
Oscar – Kathleen Battle
Silvano – John Stott
Samuele – John Macurdy
Tom – Arnold Voketatis
Un Giudice – Gregory Kunde
Un servo – William Mitchell

Milan 1978
Conductor – Claudio Abbado
Amelia – Mara Zampieri
Riccardo – Luciano Pavarotti
Renato – Piero Cappuccilli
Ulrica – Elena Obraszova
Oscar – Daniela Mazzuccato-Meneghini

Turin 2012
Conductor – Renato Palumbo
Riccardo – Gregory Kunde
Amelia – Oksana Dyka
Renato – Gabriele Viviani
Ulrica – Marianne Cornetti
Oscar – Serena Gamberoni

Sao Paulo 1989
Conductor – Isaac Karabtchevsky
Riccardo – Carlo Bergonzi
Renato – Fernando Teixeira
Amelia – Stefka Evstatieva
Ulrica – Freda Rakusin
Oscar – Adelia Issa