Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Ramon Vargas (Riccardo)
Dalibor Jenis (Renato)
Angela Marambio (Amelia)

26 Jun-11 Jul 2009


With best friends like Renato, who needs enemies? Actually, Riccardo - a governor in colonial America - does have a few enemies, despite being lively, wise, popular and liberal. Or maybe because of. But Riccardo fancies Renato's wife Amelia, and when Renato stumbles across the two out together one night, he assumes the worst. He signs up to the anti-Riccardo conspiracy, and stabs Riccardo to death at the masked ball of the title.

As the old joke goes, because this is opera, when Riccardo's stabbed he doesn't die - he sings instead. He does expire eventually, but not before proclaiming his innocence and pardoning both Renato and Amelia, and giving them a passage back to live blissfully together in England. As ever, it seems, the nice guys in politics get knifed one way or another. Riccardo didn't even have any dodgy expenses claims, unless you count his payments for fortune-telling services. 

This highly enjoyable production of Verdi's rather underrated opus is the second revival of Mario Martone's production, first seen here in 2005. The second of the three acts - Riccardo, Renato and Amelia's tense nocturnal rendezvous by a gibbet - has a set so strewn with rubble that it demands two half-hour intervals either side, to strew and unstrew it, making this a longish evening. (Handy, though, if for reasons of economy you want to nip to the pub opposite instead of the pricy conservatory-bar upstairs; I was joined there over the road by a City banker buying a pint by credit card, so clearly the recession is biting deep.)

And it's all well worth it, thanks to a shining performance from Mexican Ramon Vargas as the charismatic young Riccardo. His bright and agile tenor handles Verdi's easily flowing bel canto with an Obama-like assurance, and he made a good a job as possible of the glorious operatic paradox in his assassination - few healthy men can sing like that, never mind dying ones.

He was countered by Slovakian Dalibor Jenis's stern Renato, with a few chocolatey variations in tone. Chilean soprano Angela Marambio is a fine and impassioned Amelia. Russian mezzo Elena Manistina brought a suitably ominous vocal mood to the witchy fortune teller Ulrica, darkly breaking the news of his demise to a joking, disbelieving Riccardo, and US soprano Anna Christy was delightfully perky and convincing as the cheeky-chappie young pageboy Oscar.

The impressive final act sees the plushest set and some grand stuff with a wall of mirrors. First it faces you in the audience, so you have the odd sensation of looking back at yourselves; then it swivels up 45 degress for the masked ball scene, so we see the action both front-on and from the top, Google-earth style. It's very effective.

Perhaps the tension and final murder didn't quite crackle as much as they might, and for some this performance might feel a little stagey and 'safe', like well-done but unedgy trad-Shakespeare. But with excellently rich and controlled propulsion from Maurizio Benini and the orchestra, both music and words work superbly.

A lovely evening for all fans of fine, approachable bel canto.

Review - Rob Ainsley - June 09