THE BASICS: Verdi’s opera A MASKED BALL (UN BALLO IN MASCHERA), sung in Italian with supertitles, produced by Buffalo Opera Unlimited, will be on stage this Friday, December 2nd at 7:30 and Sunday, December 4th at 2:30 in Buffalo State College’s Rockwell Hall, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY. Tickets are available at the Rockwell Hall Box Office (716-878-3005), or online at www.buffalostatepac.org. General Admission $35, Senior $25, Student $10.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH: Several in the entourage of Governor Riccardo are scheming to assassinate him, but he has his supporters, too, including his aide, Oscar, and his most loyal lieutenant, Renato. Unfortunately, Riccardo is in a chaste love affair with Renato’s wife, Amelia. Amelia knows this must end and so she consults the fortune teller Ulrica who advises her to go to a desolate graveyard and find a certain herb that will help her forget. (Think a reverse of The Searchers’ hit “Love Potion Number Nine.”) When Riccardo meets up with Amelia in the graveyard, it turns out that he has been followed and is in a dangerous situation. Renato saves the day, only to find out the truth about his wife and his boss. Devastated he throws his lot in with the assassins, principally Samuel and Tom. They plan the deed to take place at the upcoming masked ball, hence the opera’s title.
Ballo Ulrica | Photo by Katie Finnerty
THE SINGERS, THE OPERA, THE PRODUCTION: I was invited to attend BOU’s final dress rehearsal in order to write this review, and from what I saw and heard I wouldn’t change a thing. The singing is absolutely gorgeous. This is a first-rate production.
The cast, stage-directed by Joseph Spann, and conducted from the pit by Nick DelBello, includes Rochester’s Yvonne Trobe as Amelia, with a voice to die for (sorry for the pun, but it’s true). You may have heard her as Micaëla in BOU’s production of Bizet’s CARMEN, but she has a history with the Glimmerglass Festival, was a 2021 Buffalo District Winner for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and has received a Renee Fleming Endowment Scholarship among her many other well-deserved accolades.
Ballo Riccardo and Amelia | Photo by Katie Finnerty
But Yvonne Trobe is not the only outstanding soprano. The “pants role” (a woman playing a man) of Oscar, Riccardo’s aide, is sung in “bel canto” (beautiful singing) style by Julia Ann Cordani. She has a resume as long as your arm and I understand that way back, when BOU founder Tim Kennedy was contemplating UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, he had already asked Julia Ann Cordani to take on the role. Good choice, Maestro Kennedy!
Ballo Oscar and Renato | Photo by Katie Finnerty
By the way, if you’ve only been to musicals where the performers wear body mics and have never heard a real live opera singer project her real live voice out into the audience, it’s a thrill.
Joshua Alain Bouillon (also from Rochester) is Riccardo, the lead tenor, with a history of lead tenor roles in both the U.S. and Europe. Sometimes higher voices can be problematic but not here. I just relaxed and wallowed in some great Verdi.
Nicholas Kilkenny as Renato brings his fine bass-baritone voice to the role as well as some equally fine acting chops. Just as with higher voices, lower voices can sometimes have a problem projecting over the pit, but again, NOT HERE! Very impressive.
I can’t resist re-telling the old joke: “All operas have only one plot. The tenor wants to sleep with the soprano, and the baritone will do everything to prevent that from happening.” Moving on…
Salvatore Scamacca is Samuel and James Harrington is Tom, the two principal conspirators and they match Nicholas Kilkenny as Renato.
Verdi is known for his creative orchestrations, picking just the right instruments to illustrate just the right moments. I was particularly touched by an aria, sung in the graveyard, by Yvonne Trobe, accompanied by the English Horn (a more mysterious sound than its cousin, the oboe) as played by Meghan Kyle. It’s really more of a duet. It was a moment.
And that’s the other thing that Verdi is famous for, duets, trios, and quartets, which here were quite moving. It’s rare to assemble a cast of equally strong voices, which is what Verdi requires, so this performance of UN BALLO IN MASCHERA is a rare treat.
Rounding out the cast, Mariami Bekauri is Ulrica, Anthony Bellissimo is Silvano, Nicholas D’Amaro is the Judge, and Andrea Bickford is Amelia’s Servant.
As mentioned, Nick DelBello, who serves as interim artistic director, will conduct in the orchestra pit while Roland E. Martin is chorus master (whose work is primarily done long before dress rehearsal).
David King designed the very serviceable set beautifully lit by Harry Mandris. Jenna Damberger was the costume designer.
I know that many are strangers to grand opera, but this one would be a great way to dip your toe in the genre.
Lead image: Un Ballo Death Scene at the masked ball L-R Renato, Oscar, Riccardo, Amelia | Photo by Katie Finnerty
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