Vincent Boussard’s production of Vedi’s Un Ballo in Maschera staged and filmed at Barcelona’s Liceu in 2017 is dark.  Basically there’s a light box in which the characters at front of stage can be seen while others lurk in the darkness.  According to the notes Broussard is using light and shadow to bring out the themes of illusion and truth, duty and betrayal.  That sounds to me like cleverness masquerading as a production concept and bar a few striking visuals this is hardly a production at all.

The light box is “enlivened” a bit by a hanging convict in Act 2 and a chandelier like object in the final scene.  It isn’t helped much by Christian Lacroix’ costumes which jump around in period for no discernible reason.  Mostly the characters (chorus included) are dressed in modern black though for some reason in the scene in Ulrica’s cave they wear big white ruffs (particularly odd since the libretto says Riccardo is disguised as a fisherman).  At the beginning and end of the opera Riccardo is dressed as Prince Charming for some reason while at the ball Oscar sports a pouffy skirt and a bouffant hairdo and the chorus appear to be dressed in Mylar space blankets.  I don’t see how this clarifies the production concept; if there is one.

The singing though is really rather good.  Piotr Beczala, as Riccard, is everything one could want from a Verdi tenor with power to burn and ringing high notes.  Carlos Álvarez as Renato is equally good with fine legato, power and beauty of tone.  Katerina Treyakova, as Oscar, has really good coloratura and great agility.  Keri Alkema’s Amelia is actually quite fine but a bit outshone by the guys.  Dolores Zajick does her witchy thing as Ulrica and there’s some very good work too from Roman Ialcic and Antonio di Matteo as Samuel and Tom.  The Liceu’s chorus sounds fine and there is some very nice orchestral playing.  Renato Palumbo goes for grand where it makes sense but generally keeps things moving along pretty briskly.  All in all, musically this recording is top notch.

Sound (DTS-HD-MA and LPCM stereo) is fine on Blu-ray and thew picture is decent but, understandably given how dark everything is, Fabrice Castanier uses a lot of close ups.  I think what there is to be seen can be seen though.  There are no extras and the booklet has a synopsis and track listing and quite unhelpful short notes.  Subtitle options are Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Japanese and Korean.

There are already two other Blu-rays of this piece with Piotr Beczala on the same label.  I wonder what prompted them to release this one eight years after it was recorded!

Catalogue information: C Major Blu-ray 768804