Entertainment

Metropolitan Opera’s ‘Ballo’ is Verdi chilly

Last week’s freak nor’easter set the tone for Thursday’s chilly new production of “Un Ballo in Maschera” at the Met.

Verdi’s 1859 opera, loosely based on the real-life assassination of the King of Sweden, offers a fictional motivation for the crime — as an act of vengeance by a cabinet minister whose wife the king seduced.

This staging marks the debut of director David Alden, a native New Yorker who’s built a three-decade career, mostly in Europe, creating high-concept operas.

Sadly, his “Ballo” feels more like a pitch meeting than a production. There’s an avalanche of ideas, but none of them are developed.

What did come across was a quirky sense of character, particularly for Marcelo Álvarez as King Gustavo. He was no typical tenor hero but an endearingly childlike figure, treating even the threat of assassination as a game. Opening night found him in terrific voice, with bright, energetic high notes and a seductive legato in the second-act love duet.

Also in top form was Sondra Radvanovsky as Amelia, the guilty wife.

She deployed her big, smoky soprano sensitively, winning the night’s biggest ovation for “Morró, ma prima in grazia,” as she pleaded to be allowed to say farewell to her child before her husband killed her.

Renato, the murderer in question, was Dmitri Hvoro-stovsky, whose rich baritone hit a few rough patches in his more dramatic outbursts. His acting, too, was uneven, stiff and distracted early on before coming into focus for a tragic last act.

Mezzo Dolora Zajick boomed reliably in her one scene as the fortuneteller Ulrica but had her hands full, juggling props like a cigarette holder and a human skull. More carefree was Kathleen Kim’s arrogant page boy, Oscar. She romped through all her staging with gusto, but her coloratura soprano clouded over.

This “Ballo” is a great-looking show, all black and silvery gray, with mirrored walls and bold shafts of light evoking mystery and danger. Choreographed movement, including a chorus number with twirling umbrellas, suggests the king’s campy frivolity.

But is the opera the king’s dream? Is it a bromance between Gustavo and Renato? Or is it a retelling of the myth of Icarus? Alden tried to make “Ballo” all these things and more, resulting in an eye-popping mishmash.

Conductor Fabio Luisi brought clarity and precision to the Met orchestra, with lots of sparkle for the climactic ballroom scene. But his take, like Alden’s, lacked warmth.

This “Ballo” felt as cold as a Swedish winter.