Opera with cancan elements
The premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un ballo in maschera" in a joint production of the Mariinsky Theater and the Italian Verdi Festival took place on January 31, 2000 in Parma. On Sunday it was shown in St. Petersburg. It became clear why the reception given to Valery Gergiev’s troupe in the composer’s homeland was so skeptical.

"Un ballo in maschera" was presented in Verdi's hometown as part of a magnificent celebration of the national genius. The occasion - the centenary of his death - does not in the least prevent Italians and opera lovers around the world from turning the current season into a continuous Verdi celebration. However, the public and critics were demanding and even picky about the gift brought by the St. Petersburg residents to Parma. They did not like the Mariinsky Ball: the heavy and clumsy orchestra that drowned out the soloists, the lack of genuine vocal brilliance among the singers and the stupidity of the mise-en-scenes invented by the opera director Andrei Konchalovsky. The most elegant of Verdi's creations in the Mariinsky Theater version lost its charm.
The feelings of the composer's compatriots could be partly shared by the audience at the St. Petersburg premiere. Indeed, the vocalists in the main roles - Yuri Alekseev and Irina Gordey - did not impress the imagination with either the richness of their timbres or the beauty of their interpretation. Verdi sang completely in Russian, turning a series of luxurious lyrical ariosos into an endless cruel romance. Sergei Murzaev and Olga Trifonova in the supporting roles were much more consistent with the requirements of the score and the stage, recalling the existence of such optional things as talent and inspiration in a performance that was almost sterile in this regard. I must admit, the orchestra did not drown out the soloists. The entire performance, with the possible exception of the fiery duet in the second act, was performed with great care, with careful dynamics and slow tempos. A magician of lush melodies and a brilliant director of musical passions, Verdi did not seem to inflame the frozen Mariinsky troupe at all.
"Un ballo in maschera" ends the decade in which "Rigoletto", "Il Trovatore" and "La Traviata" were created - operas that brought Verdi not just recognition, but legendary fame. Having received an order from the Neapolitan San Carlo Theater in 1857, the composer hesitated in choosing a plot. He was tempted by "King Lear", but Verdi had to give up this dream - contractual obligations got in the way. The play "Ballo in Masquerade" that appeared had a strange, almost anecdotal censorship fate.
The writer Antonio Somma reworked Scribe's play "Gustav III of Sweden" based on real events for Verdi. But they were not allowed to sing from the stage about the murder of the royal person, suggesting that the action be moved to another place or at another time. Having tried the Swedish 12th century and not finding it satisfactory, almost being put on trial due to the inability to present the client with an uncensored work, Verdi and Somme eventually resettled the characters in 18th century America, and the king was demoted to governor.
The theme of a sinister conspiracy due to all these mutations in the existing libretto remained not entirely clear. But the lyrical plot did not suffer. The opera's ending is murder. Scenes containing gloomy predictions, fatal mistakes, voluntary and involuntary betrayal, a fatal lot, not to mention the torments of forbidden love and legitimate jealousy lead to it. Nevertheless, the opera, as it came from the pen of Verdi, is swift, transparent, graceful and witty.
The production by Andrei Konchalovsky, who is working with the Mariinsky Theater for the second time (after last year’s patriotic blockbuster “War and Peace”), has increased the number of dramatic absurdities in it. In the first scene, almost every bar of Verdi’s music is for some reason subtexted by the rhythmic oscillatory movements of the choir and ballet, which in the finale of the picture develop into a cancan with lifting up of skirts. Apparently, the half-naked extras with whom the second picture swarms - in the cave of the sorceress Ulrika - are called upon to continue the intended erotic line. There was also a place for a real mystery here: during the prediction, a shaven-headed male body of unknown purpose was dangling above the gypsy’s head on a rope, which Marianna Tarasova, who played the role of Sibyl, was forced to periodically push away so as not to get in the way. Closer to the denouement, the director became sentimental. At the moment of the gloomy oath, the conspirators placed an innocent baby on a wooden horse in the center of the stage, and opened the ball stage with an eruption of multi-colored balls. It’s a pity that there were no balloons - the balls were banging very loudly on the floor.
In general, the production is in little agreement with the scenery in which the action takes place. Ezio Frigerio created an exquisitely stylized interior with ghosts of baroque architecture and ancient ships. Verdi's America is located on the imaginary border of Italy and Holland. Brick and granite, shipwrecks and a low, foggy sea horizon: suddenly, out of nowhere, through the efforts of an Italian designer, St. Petersburg appears on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater.

KIRA VERNIKOVA, St. Petersburg

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 82 dated May 16, 2001, p. 14