A masked ball by G. Verdi ★★★✩✩
Performers: Liceu Orchestra and Choir. Musical direction: Riccardo Frizza. Stage direction: Jacopo Spirei. Production of the Teatro Regio of Parma. Place and date: Liceu (09-10/II/2024)
Verdian vocal triumph, an unappealable baton and a failed production were the ingredients of Un ballo in maschera, a major opera in the repertoire that will be at the Liceu until February 20.
Freddie de Tommaso demonstrated his credentials: squillo, harmonics, power and a voice with attractive timbre that points to stardom. Riccardo's has everything to be memorable, but the icy distance that he presents at an expressive level keeps him from being a reference that will improve over the years.
Anna Pirozzi, an expert, stylist and precise vocalist, is an Amelia that makes you fall in love with her temperament, with a "Morrò" to remember. There is no theatrical chemistry as a couple, but with Renato at his peak like Artur Rucinski's, his "Eri tu" was the best aria of the performance, the trio adds the monumental quality that Verdi demands of his protagonists.
Daniella Barcellona's Ulrica, veteran and effective, and Sara Blanch's Oscar, pure and irresistible vocal spark, complete a stellar quintet.
In the alternative cast, Saioa Hernández's imperial Amelia reigned. With her characteristic color and phrasing of legendary divas, she stood out in her two arias and in spectacular "Teco io sto", perhaps Verdi's best duet, where she radiated the vocal beauty of the score in a memorable display of faculties.
Arturo Chacón-Cruz wins throughout the opera, with fiery phrasing and a command of the generous and communicative high third. With a sonorous voice, newcomer Ernesto Petti's Renato promised more than he offered in a role that he solved with ease.
Okka von Der Damerau's Ulrica, with a fresh voice and grateful tone, blended with the rest of the cast, where the intriguing duo of Valeriano Lanchas (Samuel) and Luis López Navarro (Tom) stood out. Fulfiller the Silvano by David Oller.
Fundamental to the musical success was the baton of Riccardo Frizza. In the seventh high school opera, and that of Verdi's third, the dramatic mastery, the dynamics, the cottony accompaniment of the voices and a dreamlike orchestral phrasing, with an unforgettable "Teco io sto", signed the best high school performance of he. With an ideal profile, due to his career, style and results, now that Josep Pons' departure is official, is there a more suitable profile for the new ownership?
The choir, neutralized in a set that places it at the height of the stage, performed efficiently.
The production, a halfway bout of aesthetics à la J. P. Gaultier and Querelle de Brest, does not contribute anything to the drama beyond focusing on death as an unavoidable and present destiny from the first scene to the last. A disservice to the memory of Graham Vick who died without finishing his last production.
