{"id":1606,"date":"2014-04-09T14:11:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T18:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2014-04-09T14:11:30","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T18:11:30","slug":"as-nearly-perfect-an-opera-as-one-is-likely-to-find-soltis-un-ballo-in-maschera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/2014\/04\/09\/as-nearly-perfect-an-opera-as-one-is-likely-to-find-soltis-un-ballo-in-maschera\/","title":{"rendered":"“As nearly perfect an opera as one is likely to find”: Solti’s Un Ballo in Maschera"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I love Ballo<\/em>, which is as nearly perfect an opera as one is likely to find,” wrote Sir Georg Solti in his 1997 Memoirs<\/a>. The conductor first performed the work as music director of the Frankfurt Opera in 1954, and six years later, Verdi\u2019s masterful work served as Solti\u2019s first operatic collaboration in the recording studio with soprano Birgit Nilsson, when he recorded the work with the Rome Opera in July of 1960 and 1961 (a project which began with tenor Jussi Bjoerling, but in the end enlisted the services of Carlo Bergonzi). <\/p>\n

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Un Ballo in Maschera rehearsal schedule (1982). Merritt Room Mus 857.2.679.7 Solti. Gift of the Solti Estate. (Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div><\/em><\/div>\n

In May and June of 1982 (with further sessions in May 1983) Solti returned to the recording studio, this time at Kingsway Hall in London, to record the work a second time, with Margaret Price and Luciano Pavarotti. The orchestra for this second recording was the National Philharmonic, a studio orchestra of players assembled from London\u2019s principal orchestras; no stage performances were associated with this cast. The rehearsal schedule which accompanies this conducting score indicates the day-to-day scheduling from May 25 to June 12 of 1982, in mainly afternoon (with some evening) sessions, including the pages rehearsed (Ricordi full and vocal scores) and timings. Solti performed the work complete, without cuts. <\/p>\n