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Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Luciano Pavarotti (Gustavo III), Piero Cappuccilli (Renato), Gabriele Lechner (Amelia), Ludmila Semtschuk (Ulrica), Magda Nador (Oscar), Georg Tichy (Cristiano), Franco De Grandis (Horn), Goran Simic (Ribbing), Alexander Maly (A judge) & Franz Kasemann (A servant)

Orchester und Chor der...

[Pavarotti] was on some form this evening, fearless in the high tessitura of the ‘Teco io sto’ duet…the second hero of this performance is Claudo Abbado, who piles on the tension without ever... — Gramophone Magazine, July 2016 More…

Release Date: 1st Apr 2016
Catalogue No: C907162I
Label: Orfeo
Series: Wiener Staatsoper Live
Length: 2 hours 11 minutes

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Excerpt, Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Work length3:53

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Wiener Staatsoper
Claudio Abbado

Prelude (Live)

Track length3:53

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Verdi: Un ballo in maschera, Act I

Work length46:29

$12.00

$15.60

Ludmila Schemtschuk, Franco de Grandis, Luciano Pavarotti, Alexander Maly, Goran Simić, Franz Kasemann, Gabriele Lechner, Piero Cappuccilli, Magda Nádor, Georg Tichy
Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper
Claudio Abbado

Posa in pace (Live)

Track length1:45

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Amici miei, soldati (Live)

Track length3:32

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Il cenno mio di là con essi attendi (Live)

Track length2:17

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Alla vita che t'arride (Live)

Track length3:11

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Il primo giudice (Live)

Track length6:45

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Zitti, l'incanto - Re dell'abisso (Live)

Track length3:38

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Arrivo il primo! (Live)

Track length2:30

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Su, fatemi largo (Live)

Track length3:08

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Che v'agita così? (Live)

Track length5:03

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Su, profetessa, monta il treppiè - Di' tu se fedele (Live)

Track length4:17

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Chi voi siate (Live)

Track length5:49

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Finisci il vaticinio (Live)

Track length4:34

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Verdi: Un ballo in maschera, Act II

Work length30:57

$7.00

$9.10

Gabriele Lechner, Luciano Pavarotti, Piero Cappuccilli, Franco de Grandis, Goran Simić
Wiener Staatsoper, Chor der Wiener Staatsoper
Claudio Abbado

Prelude (Live)

Track length2:30

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Ecco l'orrido campo (Live)

Track length6:55

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Teco io sto (Live)

Track length9:25

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Ahimè! S'appressa alcun (Live)

Track length4:36

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Seguitemi - Mio Dio (Live)

Track length7:31

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Verdi: Un ballo in maschera, Act III

Work length50:29

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$13.00

Luciano Pavarotti, Piero Cappuccilli, Goran Simić, Magda Nádor, Gabriele Lechner, Franco de Grandis
Wiener Staatsoper, Chor der Wiener Staatsoper
Claudio Abbado

A tal colpa è nulla il pianto (Live)

Track length2:23

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Morrò, ma prima in grazia (Live)

Track length5:12

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Alzati, là tuo figlio - Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima (Live)

Track length6:31

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Siam soli, udite (Live)

Track length8:11

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Il messaggio entri (Live)

Track length4:31

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Forse la soglia attinse - Ma se m'è forza perderti (Live)

Track length5:43

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Ah! dessa è là - Sì, rivederti, Amelia (Live)

Track length6:59

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Ah perché qui! fuggite (Live)

Track length5:04

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Ella è pura (Live)

Track length5:55

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Luciano Pavarotti’s repertoire comprised only a few roles, but his performances and recordings of them wrote and rewrote history. Pavarotti’s Riccardo (Gustavo III) in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera in his studio recording of 1983 is given pride of place because of its surface brilliance (not least thanks to Georg Solti on the podium); in his live TV broadcast of the same role three years later under Claudio Abbado he offers a striking sense of musical and dramatic immediacy. In this recording of that broadcast from the Vienna State Opera, we can hear a performance both highly nuanced and possessed of an immense radiance, from his very first “Amici mei” to his touching death scene. After the famous canzona in the first act of this recording (“Di’ tu se fedele il flutto m’aspetta”), the audience of the Vienna State Opera justifiably burst into a storm of applause (and not for the last time either).

As in the studio recording with Pavarotti and Solti, the role of Amelia was sung by Margaret Price on the opening night of this production. In the second performance, the then 25-year-old Gabriele Lechner had to stand in for her – and she did so not just with an overwhelming, fiery, youthful vigour, but also with astonishing luminosity and conviction. Just listen to the opening of the second act when Amelia waits fearfully for her beloved Riccardo alone at night – and then finally meets him. It’s rare to experience such a truthful performance as this. But the Russian mezzosoprano Ludmila Semtschuk as the fortune-teller Ulrica is also beguiling with her passion and profound depth. Piero Cappuccilli had been well known to the Vienna audience for decades. He too is unmistakeable in his timbre and his art of musical characterisation. Like many famous Verdi baritones he was not free of vanity, but this has no adverse impact on his performance as the jealous husband of Amelia and the friend of Riccardo. Claudio Abbado had been the new music director of the State Opera since the autumn of 1986. He had given his highly successful debut there just two years earlier. As ever – and not just with Verdi – Abbado is convincing here in his insistence on a lean, sinewy, tense performance from the Vienna Philharmonic, and this is wholly in the interests of the musical drama.

Artists

Orchester und Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Claudio Abbado

Reviews

July 2016

[Pavarotti] was on some form this evening, fearless in the high tessitura of the ‘Teco io sto’ duet…the second hero of this performance is Claudo Abbado, who piles on the tension without ever pressing too much…there’s no shortage of emotion but little sentimentality…I would place this set very high up the recommendable list for this opera

27th May 2016

‘Lucky Luciano’ in top form singing a favourite role

August 2016

Luciano Pavarotti offers one of his finest Verdi Interpretations in this October 1986 production: the 51- year old tenor’s singing is brimming with vitality in every phrase and more sweeping than in the Decca recording made with Solti four years earlier.

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

2 CDs

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