Verdi – Rigoletto: Dress Rehearsal, ROHCG 10/9/21

Cast: Rigoletto: Carlos Álvarez; Duke of Mantua: Liparit Avetisyan; Gilda: Lisette Oropesa; Sparafucile: Brindley Sherratt; Maddalena: Ramona Zaharia; Monterone: Eric Greene. Conductor Antonio Pappano; new production directed by Oliver Mears

I have been, over the years, rather snooty about Verdi’s early and middle period works. I love Otello and Falstaff and have vivid memories of Jon Vickers singing Otello in the 70’s (I have also persuaded myself I was at one of the legendary Carlos Kleiber/Placido Domingo Otello performances at Covent Garden in the early 80’s but I have no documentary evidence for that and maybe I dreamt it…). More recently I admitted to myself that I had enjoyed the ROHCG Traviata screening with Ermonela Jaho, and the Forza del Destino one with Anna Netrebko – but generally Trovatore, Rigoletto, Macbeth, let alone Don Carolos and Aida have just not been works I have bothered about or listened to since the early 70’s (though I did once hear Aida at the Pyramids c.1987 as a research visit to see how to put on large scale arts events at the Pyramids – I was involved at the time with a rather mad plan to stage the National Theatre production of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ with Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins, there – sadly a stage hands’ strike meant it never materialised).

The fact that I’ve now become a Friend of ROHCG, and can attend one dress rehearsal per booking period has given me a new urge to explore beyond my usual prejudices, and so my first visit as a  Friend to a dress rehearsal was to the one for this new production of ‘Rigoletto’

I have to say I enjoyed it hugely. This was for a number of reasons:

1. It had an operatic superstar, in Lisette Oropesa, singing Gilda. Her voice has a lovely smokey quality and what she does with it is very distinguished – beautiful soft singing, razor sharp coloratura and high notes when they matter. Added to the fact that she looks the part and at 37 is relatively young, and that she can act, you can see why she is one of the most in-demand lyric coloratura sopranos around today. I was immensely impressed – and have made a spur of the moment decision to see her in action in Traviata in November
2. Secondly, the performance benefited from the energy and commitment Tony Pappano gave to it – the orchestral presence was always there, pushing the drama along. The orchestra played brilliantly
3. The production was attractive and straight-forward and with only minor irritations. The sets were mainly in a range of browns and oranges, for the Court and Rigoletto’s house. Sparafucile’s house was cleverly designed to be set besides the river where the Duke was to be drowned, and this was a very effective stage picture of greys, dawning light and cold clouds. The costumes were fairly indeterminate – mostly modernish but the Duke of Mantua was in Renaissance gear! There were a range of very large images of semi-naked Renaissance women projected on to the back of the stage, and a running theme throughout the production was male behaviour degrading women – when Gilda is taken from Rigoletto’s house, a blown-up sex toy is put into the bed to replace her. The production has some Shakespearean references as well – Monterone has his eyes gouged out like Gloucester in ‘Lear’, and altogether Mantua seems a pretty unpleasant place. The point of the very opening – a still life of chorus and characters representing (I assume) a Renaissance painting – seemed less clear in what was being conveyed, though it looked fantastic! The lighting seemed effective – i.e. unobtrusive. The directions to the singers seemed clear and helpful in making the action understandable and the characters as as realistic as they can be in what is a pretty silly story – the chorus was very effective in conveying a menacing and thuggish tone, and they sang superbly.

There was no-one really at the same level as Oropesa. Liparit Avetisyan was a goodish Duke of Mantua but with a not always steady, and certainly not that subtle, voice.  Carlos Alvarez I found a bit opaque as Rigoletto – he didn’t really convey the depths of the character’s bitterness and anguish. Brindley Sherrard was a very reliable Sparafucile, and it was great to hear Eric Greene, recently a superb Wotan at BOC’s RhineGold, as Monterone.

I came away from this still thinking that it was a very silly work, really, but it’s dramatically compelling and very exciting when you have a conductor and star singer fired up to delivering it in the way Oropesa and Pappano were.