Now that the annual opening season festivities of the San Francisco Opera (SFO) have concluded, the War Memorial Opera House can “get down to business” with this season’s round of productions. Things began last night with Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (a masked ball), which was given its first performance this past Friday in conjunction with (appropriately enough) the opening-night Opera Ball. Staging was directed by Leo Muscato, his first production in the United Stated reviving a version that originated in Sweden ten years ago.
I fear that Muscato’s approach for this occasion was a muddled one, with the first warning signs to be found in the program book. Those familiar with the opera know that it is about the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden (Gustavo in the libretto), who was, indeed, fatally shot during a masked ball. Sadly, this story did not go down well with censors in both Naples and Rome, leading Verdi to “transplant” the venue to Boston during the period prior to the American Revolution. This involved changing the names of most of the main characters.
This often leads to a cast listing which, for the principal characters, coupled the name from one version with a parenthesized account of the name from the other. This was the case in the program for the current production. However, in the cast listing, some of the names in parentheses are Swedish, while others are English. My initial thought was that this was a blundered misprint; but, when I read Muscato’s essay in the program book, I came away with the impression that this was intentional. Sadly, the note never explained the reason for this jumble. Little did I know that this would be a sign of things to come during the performance!
SFO last performed this opera in 2014, when it was staged by Jose Maria Condemi. This was back in my days with Examiner.com, and I was so enthusiastic about the production that I wrote two articles about two different performances! Last night, on the other hand, felt like an interminable slog. The entire affair was as muddled as Muscato’s essay, even with a cast of vocalists that tried as nobly as possible to give it their all.
Tom (Jongwon Han), Samuel (Adam Lau), and Renato (Amartuvshin Enkhbat) plotting the assassination of Gustavo (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)
At the head of that list was tenor Michael Fabiano, doing his best to deliver a multidimensional account of Gustavo’s character. The same could be said for the return of soprano Lianna Haroutounian as Amelia, Gustavo’s latest love interest. Amelia, of course, was married to Renato, sung by baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat in his SFO debut. He is the one to assassinate the king after having joined forces with the rebels Samuel (bass Adam Lau) and Tom (bass-baritone Jongwon Han), the latter an Adler Fellow. The other returning vocalist was mezzo Judit Kutasi in the role of the sorceress Ulrica.
Listening to all of these voices was consistently a pleasure, but watching them negotiate the pitfalls in Muscato’s staging left much to be desired. Fortunately, the musicians in the orchestra pit, led by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, gave Verdi’s score all of the attention it deserved. That included Evan Kahn, leader of the cello section, who delivered a rapturous solo accompaniment to Amelia’s aria at the beginning of the final act.
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