Very chic, this Australian Rigoletto under Elijah Moshinsky’s direction. Think of Fellini’s films and you’ve got it–slickly dressed, wealthy men in tuxedos and sunglasses and fashionable women make up the Court of Mantua. The curtain rises during the prelude and we see a perfectly miserable Rigoletto getting ready for the Duke’s party; Michael Yeargan’s revolving stage turns to show us the Fellini-like party. Later, styles seem to change and the look is more 1950s, New York, Little Italy, as in Jonathan Miller’s production for the ENO (and later seen in New York), while Sparafucile’s waterfront murder site appears to be from America’s wild west. Oh well.
Alan Opie comes close to delving the depths of Rigoletto’s despair, but misses vocally. He lacks the true Verdi baritone juice–that burnished middle voice–and seems to have trouble at the top occasionally as well. He builds character, however, and his last act is really quite moving. You feel that his acting is being hampered in Act 1 by the production and imbecilic clown costume, and his physical impairment is underplayed. If this is purposeful, it’s a mistake.
Opie’s fine in his duet in the first act with Gilda, but then again, soprano Emma Matthews could inspire the dead, turning in one of the finest readings of this role I’ve ever heard. She’s a good-looking woman who looks far younger than her 40 years, with a voice of sheer gold and a technique so remarkable that you never worry about the singing, per se. She easily could just warble and make you perfectly happy, but she acts and characterizes. Her “Caro nome” is touching as well as dazzling in its virtuosity, and her rich mid-voice allows for some truly dramatic singing later on.
Would that Paul O’Neill’s Duke were as fine. The voice is too light for the role, but it has quality and he might pass, vocally, for Italian. But he’s stiff and never quite credible. Elizabeth Campbell sings both Giovanna and Maddalena, and if you suspect that she will look wrong as at last one of them, you’re right. She sings well as both but looks like the Duke’s aunt in Act 3. David Parkin’s Sparafucile is impressive.
Conductor Giovanni Reggioli leads with an understating of Verdian style that is mostly missing from the singing, and he makes the performance exciting. But I’d stick with the wildly under-rated, cruelly dramatic Graham Vick production from Barcelona with Marcelo Alvarez in the title role (TDK). [10/14/2011]
