Monday, November 22, 2021

Un ballo in maschera (1980)

 First shown under the TV program Live from the Metropolitan Opera.

Filmed opera performance. Music by Giuseppe Verdi and libretto by Antonio Somma. First performance of this opera was in 1859. It was based on the libretto by Eugène Scribe for the opera Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué.

Set in colonial era U.S., this has the Boston governor and his secretary's wife falling in love with each other. The secretary finds out about it and joins the revolutionaries in revenge.

I can't find much to say about this opera, none of whose tunes I recognized. The plot is pretty banal, and the proceedings are somewhat enlivened by a bizarre page character played by a woman (though the character is male). The singers are very good, but I always appraise them so, because my ears are not of a refined connoisseur kind.

No rating is given, because I only give them for movies (with rare exceptions).

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