«Un Ballo in Maschera» (one of the most beautiful M° Verdi’s Operas) needs a refined and incisive Conductor, and M° Rudel stands out in particular for the very attentive accompaniment of the Singers and the sensitive knowledge of the Italian Romantic vocal style, in which are distinguished Mme Rolandi in the risky role of Oscar, sung with a very remarkable technique and brilliant characterisation; and M° Elvira, for his beautiful soft-tone voice, appropriate for the several emotions of the noble and troubled role of Renato.

NYCO had a very high performance standard throughout the 60's and 70's and this recording demonstrates that. Mauro is usually depicted as a good second stringer and not much more. He is not the equal vocally of Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras, or Bergonzi just to name a few of the tenors who sang this repertoire at this time. He was a very honest, capable singer though and his Riccardo is charming, passionate, and well- sung. He and Meier end their big Act Two duet on a great top C, his Act Three aria is very moving, and one is very sorry to hear him go at the end.Meier lives up to her reputation. She has little difficulty with Amelia's music and shapes her two arias very well. Elvira may have been a little underpowered for the big Verdi roles across the plaza, but he sings very handsomely. His manly, smooth baritone is always a pleasure to hear. I loved hearing Rolandi as Oscar though I was a little disappointed that Rudel didn't allow her any interpolated high notes in "Saper vorreste." Costa-Greenspon is in over her head as Ulrica. She gets all the notes, but it's the wrong type of voice for the part. The other singers and chorus are very good. Was there anything Rudel didn't conduct well? He's very good here, leading a tight, professional performance. The sound is from an excellent in-house source, the voices heard clearly over the orchestra. Lovers of Ballo or the principals should get this.

Although it hails from New York, this performance is best termed provincial. Excellent broadcast mono sound is arguably its best feature. Verdi's score is grotesquely mishandled by Julius Rudel, whose rubato sounds machine-tooled. The wonderful Johanna Meier sounds badly out of sorts while Ermanno Mauro is a utility Itanianate tenor who one tended to get when the real item was hard to find. None of Gustavo's charm or charisma comes across. Pablo Elvira is genuine Verdi baritone with a good top who would probably fare better in other circumstances than these. The Oscar is shallow-toned and the Ulrica just awful: an opera-buffa voice straining to achieve dramatic-contralto weight. This is only for diehard fans of the singers involved, Elvira particularly.

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I love Johanna Meier! My first Die Walkure was with her and Jon Vickers! My first Norma with Marianna Paunova as Adalgisa in Tampa Bay Florida. An amazing singer!

Dear Sirs:In the process of looking opver your interesting catalogue, I cam upon this performance of BALLO. Since I was at the performance and I recorded it, I thought that I would compare your sound with my Uher recording. It appears that you sound is very similar to mine, with the voices being very clear and forward. However, this is definitely not the performance of 20 April 1976 because Johanna Meier did not sing that night. She was replaced by Betty Jones, and the voice on your recording is not Miss Jones. I have the recording to prove this.I am going to sample the rest of your catalogue, and I would consider making my private recordings of New York performances available to you in exchange for your CDs that interest me. For the most part, my recordings are not in circulation, and the sound is equal to the sound of this performance of BALLO.Yours truly,Tom Newby