Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Complete Ballet Music
Münchner Rundfunkorchester/Ivan Repušić
rec. 2022-24, Stuttgart, Germany
BR Klassik 900341 [2 CDs: 117]
It comes as a surprise that it has taken until 2025 for someone to realize that it would be a good idea to produce a collection of all of the ballets which Verdi’s composed for his operas. In the distant past, Decca recorded Lorin Maazel and his Cleveland Orchestra in the late 1970s with an album of this sort but it only had three of the Ballets.* Kudos then for Ivan Repušić and BR Klassik for realizing that this was an important collection that needed to be brought together.
Verdi’s ballets were almost invariably written for productions at the Paris opera. However, that is not the case for the Aida ballet, and also for a recently rediscovered ballet which he wrote for an 1848 Belgian production of Nabucco (review); alas, that brief ballet has not been included in this collection.
Verdi was a fine craftsman of the lighter sort of music that was the norm for ballets at that time; one must remember that the ballets of Tchaikovsky, with their resolutely symphonic scores, were still years away from being widely accepted.
This ballet recital opens with what is surely the best dance music that Verdi ever wrote in the short divertissement for the 1894 Paris production of Otello. The music is vibrant and colourful with heady Middle Eastern scents and is brilliantly played by Munich Radio Orchestra.The opening Danse Turque section shows Repušić’s pacing to be at a faster clip than the sometimes quirky Maazel in Cleveland. Repušić coaxes truly sinuous instrumental lines from the woodwind section in the chanson arabe while the concluding danse de guerriers has a tumultuous impact. While the Otello ballet doesn’t really work in the Third Act that it was intended for I recall that Franco Zeffirelli brilliantly utilized it in his film version of Otello after the Act One storm had ceased, as jubilant seaside party music for the people of Venice.
Repušić gives us a similarly fine account of the ballet from the 1864 revision of Macbeth. The orchestra’s playing is crisp and invigorating here even more so than Riccardo Muti’s famous recording of the complete opera. As I listened to the opening allegro section I became aware of tiny details in the score that I had not noticed before. This is thanks to Repušić and the stunning sound that the Bavarian Radio engineers have achieved here. I must also point out the excellence of the bassoon player, who achieves lovely long phrases in the andante section.
The ballet for Jérusalem is a lesser-achieving delight; I believe it was Verdi’s first attempt to write a large-scale ballet. The music is pleasant enough but there is hardly any Middle Eastern atmosphere conveyed by the music, a problem one encounters in other French music of the period such as Félicien David’s Symphonic Ode Le Désert (review). Repušić and his orchestra give a thoroughly professional account and bringto the gallop a crackling intensity. However, the Jérusalem ballet is not the least effective work on this set; quite surprisingly, that honour goes to the two brief Aida divertissements. It is not that Repušić and his players perform the music any less skillfully than other accounts I have heard; it is simply that when they are excised from the vast operatic canvas that surrounds them they seem utterly trivial, which they definitely aren’t in any complete performance of the opera.
The La Peregrina ballet from Don Carlos is separated from the composition of the Jérusalem ballet by 20 years and in that time the composer’s ability to write riveting dance music had certainly improved beyond all recognition. This ballet actually presents with a plot of a pearl diver descending to the depths of the ocean to dance with various types of pearls before encountering the legendary La Peregrina , who turns out to be the Princess Eboli in the guise of the Queen of Spain. Verdi’s music here features a much richer use of the orchestral palette than in the earlier ballets. There is particularly lovely viola solo in the middle of the Ballet. However, it is in regards to Don Carlos that the one real black mark on this set must be noted. That is the booklet notes which are both inadequate, and in the case of the Don Carlos ballet, incorrect. The writer claims that the ballet’s name of La Peregrina probably alludes to an intermedi for a 1589 comic play. The writer is obviously ignorant of of one of the most famous jewels in history: an enormous teardrop pearl which was presented to King Philip II and which he included in the Spanish Crown jewels, where it remained for over 200 years. The symbolism of the historic jewel, La Peregrina to the plot of Don Carlos is a key point which the booklet writer completely misjudged.
The ballet for Le trouvère (Il Trovatore) has been recorded on a couple of occasions. Richard Bonynge’s complete Decca recording of the opera originally featured the ballet in its proper sequence in the Third Act. In the remastered Decca CD it shows up only as an appendix (review). The music for the ballet uses some themes from the Anvil Chorus sprinkled throughout the just over its 20 minute duration. Repušić cultivates an especially sensuous sound from the flute section, playing in their lowest range in the sevilliana. Verdi’s use of woodwinds here is especially delicate, and follows a tradition which began in French dance music during the days of the Ancien Régime.
Verdi’s longest ballet is that for Les vêpres siciliennes. Often it has seemed to me to lack interest over its 29 minute duration but that is not the case here. Repušić energises his players to a high degree and yet he draws some languorously beautiful sounds from the solo oboe in the summer section. There is a similar skill in the highlighted section of juxtaposed plucked strings. He even brings a touch of humour to the charmingly lugubrious allegro section. Throughout this recording the engineers have given superbly detailed sound with a wonderful spatial bloom to the instruments. This recording is definitely the top choice for anyone wanting a survey of Verdi’s ballet music. It is a truly fine achievement. Ivan Repušić and BR Klassik have already recorded Luisa Miller, I Lombardi, Atilla and I Due Foscari . Hopefully they will add to this excellent series by making recordings of Il Corsaro, Stiffelio and La Battaglia di Legnano; new recordings of these are all definitely needed.
Mike Parr
* I am indebted to Rob Maynard for the following additional information: “While it’s true that the Philips twofer entitled “Verdi complete ballet music” (442 550-2) weirdly failed to live up to its name by omitting the dance episodes from Aida, the 2012 Naxos release “Verdi complete ballet music from the operas” (8.572818-19) offers the full package. The performances by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Jose Serebrier are very fine and are delivered in excellent sound.”
Previous review: Ken Talbot (January 2025)
Contents
Otello (1894) Acte III, scène 6
Macbeth (1864) Atto III, scena 2
Jérusalem (1847) Acte III, scène 1
Don Carlos (1867) Acte III, scène 2
Aida (1871/1880) Atto I, scena 2, Atto II, scena 1, Atto II, scena 2
Le trouvère (1857) Acte III, scène 2
Les vêpres siciliennes (1855) Acte III, scène 5
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
