Dec 7, 2021
Heidi Stober as Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera
(San Francisco, 2015)
seen from India
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Spain
seen from South Africa
seen from Slovakia
seen from Yemen
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Netherlands
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Denmark
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from Denmark
seen from United States
seen from Germany
Heidi Stober as Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera
(San Francisco, 2015)
Ballo Day! Ballo Day! BALLO DAY!!!
Kathleen Kim as Oscar in Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera
(Metropolitan Opera House, 2012)
one day someone asked “What does this world need?” and a pair of artists said “How about a tiny soprano boi dancing and singing tralalala” and from that moment on the world was a better place
will I ever get over Kathleen Kim as Oscar?
No.
(Still not a fan of facial hair on trouser roles as a general rule, but she pulls it off.
She could pull anything off.)
Un Ballo in Maschera reactions, pt. 2
Production: Met 2012
everything is always so black-and-white with sopranos
and tenors never can just leave well enough alone
she says as she begins to undress
awkward
things escalate quickly when your husband is a baritone
moral of the story: don’t pick a tenor to be your best friend
NOT COOL DUDE
oh dang
stop i can’t
don’t you dare you put him down right now
dun dun dunn
that happened extremely quickly
so they either forget about the page after act 3 or they make him witness the tragedy first hand
yet anther case of “if they had just stopped and talked about things” or “if someone had just listened to the soprano for once when she said she was innocent” but you know here we are
no blood for the tenor this time
:(
this production was interesting; I haven’t seen any other versions of this one so I don’t have much to compare it to. I don’t get the need for all these modern productions to make their supers do so much weird stuff in the background. But the sets were intriguing and even the weird ones seemed oddly fitting.
Obviously Kim was my favorite and her adorableness level allowed me to forgive the mustache etc. So sweet and energetic and mischievous and ahhhhh. ALSO I love that the director was specifically going for gender fluidity for Oscar because I live for that.
The rest of the cast was great too; I enjoy Alvarez, he’s actually expressive (I’m so sorry, I just generally do not like tenors so I tend to knock them a lot) and his interactions with Oscar were so cute. Both the leading ladies were great but I’m especially partial to Blythe because she’s so fierce and compelling and I kinda wish her character had more to do because I would have loved to see more of her as this character. And obviously Hvorostovsky was amazing; his ability to go from “Hey bud let’s save your life” to “OMG I’M GONNA KILL YOU” in like two seconds is astonishingly believable.
This story has a lot of the typical opera tropes but it was surprising to me in a few ways: the Tenor actually makes a not-self-centered decision, the soprano doesn’t die, and the masks actually work. Also Oscar didn’t just fall out of the story like the page usually does (still mad about that, one in particular, but that’s another story). BUT I wouldn’t mind if he wasn’t there for the death scene. He shouldn’t have to see that :(
overall very enjoyable :)
Un Ballo in Maschera reactions, pt. 1
Production: Met 2012
“As is often the case--but particularly in 19th-century opera--there is no room for a happy ending when two men love the same woman.” ~Deborah Voight, host
Here we go!
Okay, I’ll forgive the facial hair this once...because...well, just LOOK at this child
directors take note this is the only way you’re allowed to stage an overture
well this is ominous
ahhhh
yeah well that never lasts very long
so the tenor and baritone already got their big arias and we’re only like 15 minutes in, what’s left?
and Oscar’s just chillin with a smoke and announcing people as they come, you know, basic page stuff
I’m dead already cause of death here’s a hint it starts with O
folks i literally screamed
Queen
we should say this to tenors more often
okay
buddy
this is like my new favorite picture of anything ever
I guess that’s a thing
So far I really like this :D I have no idea how the rest of the story goes--I have some ideas, because we all know how things work in opera--so I’m very excited to see the rest of it. Also I love the libretto, critics can shove off.
sometimes I forget how awesome the lot-drawing scene from Ballo is and then I remember
the music slaps, it’s such an intense scene, and did I mention the music slaps?