Balls Out: Un Ballo in Maschera at SF Opera

A solid performance of Un Ballo in Maschera opens SF Opera’s season with fine singing and playing.

 

Continuing Eun Sun Kim’s ongoing project of a Verdi and Wagner work a season, Un Ballo in Masercha, was a strong entry. Following an excellent Il Trovatore, and Lohengrin from last season, my expectations were high. Happily, I felt that Kim and her cast achieved the heights expected of them.

 

Returning to SF, Michael Fabiano gave the most complete performance I’ve seen from him. The previous times I’ve seen him, I’ve felt that he’s been vocally superb, but his ability to inhabit rather than portray characters was lacking. Here, he accomplished both, bringing life to Gustavo while maintaining his usual vocal excellence. Fabiano has a generous spinto tenor, easily sailing over the orchestra and with a nice ring to it. I find his voice well-suited to Verdi, and his innate sense of musicality shines through. His Gustavo was well-portrayed, and his arc from carefree king to serious statesman felt natural. A

 

Making his debut in SF, Amartuvshin Enkhbat displayed why he’s one of the world’s most sought-after Verdi baritones. His voice is rich and dark, with ample power. After seeing Renato, it was easy to see why Enkhbat is acclaimed as Rigoletto. Enkhbat is more of a park-and-bark singer with his acting being stiffer than the rest of his cast, but vocally he has the goods, and was expressive with his voice if his gestures didn’t quite match. A

 

Completing the love triangle was Lianna Haroutounian as Amelia. Haroutounian is well-versed in the spinto repertoire, and she, like her costars sounded natural in her role. I enjoyed her performance overall. Haroutounian understood the important moments and focused her energy when needed during her two big arias and the duet with Gustavo. Her acting was pretty good, able conveying Amelia’s torment. My only small complaints were the occasionally hardness that crept into her tone at forte on high notes, and the occasional glottal catch at the onset of some phrases. A-

 

Meigui Zhang’s Oscar mostly avoided the character’s inherently annoying characteristics. Her coloratura was clean in her arias, though I gelt that Kim’s tempi were a hair fast for Zhang. Still, she made the most of her role, and I enjoyed her performance. A-

 

In her initial debut as Ortrud in Lohengrin, I found Judit Kutasi to be impressive. However, here as Ulrica, a role I thought she’d excel in, I found Kutasi to be adequate. The voice is thick and big, seemingly made for a role like Ulrica, yet that thickness lead to mushy diction and I could barely parse apart what she was singing. Ulrica is a one-scene role, so a good singer makes an impact in the limited time. Here, though, I felt that Kutasi’s Ulrica was merely adequate, moving the plot along, without making a huge impact. B-

 

Leading the forces, Eun Sun Kim provided generous support to her singers. Never did you feel like she rushed the tempos, nor did you feel that there was ever a disconnect between her and her singers. Kim continues to impress me, and she’s shown the kind of versatility and excellence that one expects of a music director. However, while Kim did an excellent job, I did feel that she could’ve drawn out more emotion from the orchestra. For example, in Gustavo’s “La rivedra nell’estasi” I felt that the orchestra was missing that last bit of emotion to really underscore Gustavo’s emotions and his yearning. B+

 

Stray Thoughts