OPERA REVIEW : ‘BALLO IN MASCHERA’ IN SAN FRANCISCO

Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” has been ill-fated in recent seasons at the War memorial Opera House.

In 1982, for general director Terence McEwen’s first opening night, Ingvar Wixell canceled as Renato. Montserrat Caballe sang in spite of an announced illness. Luciano Pavarotti was contracted for that performance only; the subsequent ones were shared by lesser lights: Vasile Moldoveanu and (another replacement) Ermanno Mauro. Five performances into the run, Caballe had to be replaced by a novice, Rebecca Cook.

This season, the dauntless McEwen promised “Ballo” with a cast headed by Placido Domingo, (his first scheduled appearance here since 1981), with Margaret Price as Amelia and Fiorenza Cossotto as Ulrica. Naturally, it sold very well.

During the summer, however, Domingo withdrew so he could make a movie of “Otello.” The company eventually announced 61-year-old Carlo Bergonzi as the new Riccardo. While this move dismayed those addicted to superstar names, it pleased opera lovers who realized that this was a rare chance to hear one of the last great stylists of Italian opera.

Then, within a week of the opening, Margaret Price also canceled. With only four days’ notice, Carol Neblett agreed to take over a role she had not sung in several years.

On that opening night, lack of rehearsal showed in everyone’s performance. The music did not always come easily for Bergonzi. Furthermore, his attempts to play with the line, to mold it to the words, to spice it with his exquisite sense of theatrical color, were everywhere undermined by the rigidity of Sir John Pritchard, his conductor.

Neblett had not yet put Amelia back into her voice. Her sound in the middle of her range was lovely, her diction admirable, but whenever she had to sing high or loud, she became squally--at times painfully so.

By Saturday night, Bergonzi’s sixth and final performance, the audience was getting something closer to the quality it had a right to expect.

Short and round, Bergonzi has never been much of an actor, nor has age brought him new histrionic insights, but now he was confident and at his ease. Once past the hurdle of his first aria, he spun out Verdi’s arching melodies masterfully. Especially in his encounter with Ulrica, he charged the music with a conversational intensity, turning it into drama without ever sacrificing lyrical expansiveness.

As the sorceress, Cossotto was severely taxed in both the upper and lower extremes of her voice. She too is several years past her prime, but she charged her scene with a tension that it did not get from its conductor, and like Bergonzi, put the words into the melodies with stirring conviction.

Now that Neblett had thoroughly refamiliarized herself with Amelia’s music, she was able to play it for strength. The loud, high singing was still raw, but some of the high, soft moments were lovely, and the middle and lower parts of the voice emerged warm and pure.

Not everyone improved substantially, however. Erie Mills as the King’s page, Oscar, has a bright, clear voice, but she made little of her character and less of her coloratura. Silvano Carroli was clearly outclassed stylistically, bawling Renato’s music and spending most of the evening looking for the right pitch.

Pritchard’s conducting, when Bergonzi was not in charge, remained unimaginative.