Un Ballo in Maschera

Verdi's 1859 opera was originally beset by censorship problems because it dealt with a royal assassination—the 1792 murder of King Gustav III of Sweden—which was considered an unsuitable subject for the stage. The composer was therefore forced to shift the locale to 17th-century Boston and change the victim to its governor, Riccardo. The Boston version is followed in this 2016 production from Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper, and the geographical location is the least controversial element in Johannes Erath's peculiar staging, which situates all of the action on a single set: a bedroom with a huge curving staircase. And it apparently presents the plot—Riccardo is stabbed (or in this case, shot) by his friend and advisor Renato, who has learned of the governor's affair with Renato's wife Amelia—as the governor's nightmare, in which a fortune-teller named Ulrica plays a major role. The concept is frankly bewildering: a puppet appears occasionally to mouth lines sung by Riccardo, and it sometimes turns into a real boy, while Riccardo mounts the staircase at the close after supposedly being shot dead. But while the visuals—presented virtually in black-and-white, often through scrims—are strange, the musical performance is superb. Zubin Mehta leads the Bayerische Staatsorchester in a weighty but exciting account of the score, and the vocalism of Piotr Beczala (Riccardo), George Petean (Renato), Anja Harteros (Amelia), Okka von der Damerau (Ulrica), and the supporting soloists is uniformly first-rate. Although a more traditional reading might be preferred—such as the 2011 Teatro Regio di Parma staging (VL-11/13)—this one certainly shines when it comes to the music. Presented in DTS 5.1 (DTS-HD 5.1 on the Blu-ray edition) and PCM stereo, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)