Verdi, Rigoletto: (new production premiere) soloists, chorus and orchestra of Opera North, Grand Theatre, Leeds 07.10.2006 (RJF)

Melodramma in three acts. Libretto by Francesca Maria Piave based on Victor Hugo’s drama Le Roi s’amuse. First performed at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, on March 11th 1851.

 

Verdi’s Rigoletto is based on Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’amuse. In a letter to his librettist, Piave, he describes it as ‘the greatest drama of modern times’. He saw the character of Tribolet, to become Rigoletto in the opera, as a character worthy of Shakespeare, and there was no greater compliment in his own mind that Verdi could pen. His original working title was to be La maledezione (The Curse) and he and Piave went to Venice, where the opera was scheduled for its premiere, to get the approval of the censor who responded with a decree completely banning La maledezione. The censor objected to a King being involved, to Tribolet’s hunchback and even to details about Gilda’s body being put into a sack on stage. Verdi threatened to take his opera to another city before compromise was reached. This involved a change from the French court to that of an independent Duke but allowing for a historical period most suitable for scenic and dramatic effect, particularly in respect of the impact of the curse on Rigoletto’s psyche. ‘Ah! La maladezione!’ are the words with which Rigoletto concludes Act I, as he realises his daughter Gilda has been abducted, and are his final cry at the conclusion of the opera as he realises she is dead.

So, how would an office janitor, which is what it seems that Rigoletto is in this Opera North production that launched the refurbished Grand Theatre on Saturday evening, bring much of that across? Charles Edwards’ set, with costumes designed by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, aims to bring the opera up to date. Act I Scene one left me a little confused. Was this a bordello? On the wall were pictures of scantily clad young women and on a comfy chair set centre stage, sat a largish man, casually dressed, as other men strolled about wearing pale coloured suits or light shirts. There was a desk with some office apparatus on it and some women strolled in. Rigoletto arrived in grey cardigan. He had a limp, but no signs of a hump or scoliosis. The big chap was the Duke, and I suppose the general summer garb allowed for the ambient temperature in Mantua.

Rafael Rojas as the Duke started of rather dryly in ‘Questa o quella’, when his sexual attitudes and proclivities are made clear. Ceprano’s wife, and at least initially Monterone’s daughter, seemed more up for the goings on than I expected. In the latter's case the rather sadistic stripping of her clothes to leave her abused in the scantiest of undies doubtless cleared her mind considerably. Monterone’s appearance, in dark suit,set him and his standards apart. However, at this stage the Duke’s cronies, or staff, seemed unperturbed by Rigoletto's persona or his taunts reducing him to minor player. Monterone was then set upon, shirt ripped off and strapped to a chair by the Duke’s mob, as the scene closed.

 

Scene two opened in front of a gauze with Sparafucile pushing what turned out to be his sister forward across the stage whilst he settled into his sleeping bag. Physically imposing, and with a mohican haircut, he looked a Hell’s Angel type up for a bit of bovver. Rigoletto arrived on his way home to be accosted by him. In the ensuing duet, and in the final act, Brindley Sherratt’s singing and portrayal left little to be desired. At the end of ‘Pari siamo’, as Rigoletto moved across stage and the gauze rose and back lighting came on to reveal his home, (a smallish caravan with the inside revealed.) Alan Opie had a little vocal trouble for which indulgence was later asked. The caravan was sparsely furnished with only a mattress, chairs, and a suitcase and the only decoration on the plain walls was a picture of a woman in a floral dress who Rigoletto revealed was Gilda’s mother.

 

Gilda’s companion was none other than Sparafucile’s prostitute sister Maddalena, who in due course gave the Duke a very obvious wink that the coast was clear when Rigoletto went outside on hearing some noises. Dressed very plainly, Henriette Bonde-Hansen’s Gilda looked insufficiently sexually appealing to have turned the licentious Duke on. Her singing was  more attractive, full, warm toned and vibrant, more of a Mimì perhaps than the usual light coloratura Gilda. However much tone she fielded though, it was rather wasted on Rafael Rojas in the love duet. He seemed to have forgotten how to sing softly or caress a phrase. The abduction was not convincingly staged but this was forgiven by the only dramatic mini coup de theatre of the evening. On realising that Gilda has been abducted, and as Rigoletto sings the words of the curse, the darkened rear stage was vividly re-lit to reveal Monterone, still shirtless and strapped to his chair, now starkly bloodied, the acolytes presumably having worked him over.

 

Act II was back in the office with the Duke in dressing gown and boxer shorts. Rafael Rojas’ figure is like his voice, big and beefy and hardly an enticing sight and he tended to put too much strength into ‘Ella mi fu rapita’. Alan Opie’s ‘cortigiani, vil razza dannata’ was well sung and phrased, really portraying Rigoletto’s agony of concern for his daughter’s whereabouts and safe being. This effect was spoiled in the great father-daughter duet that followed as the two were on opposite sides of the stage while Gilda confessed her infatuation and humiliation. There was no comforting arm from a loving father, regardless of the fact that his dreams for his daughter were shattered and the concerned warmth that exudes from the music. The courtiers do exit at Rigoletto’s imperative and there, in a corner, lies the bloodied Monterone who looks on as Rigoletto abuses and breaks up the framed portrait of the Duke, before he, Monterone, makes his final departure regretting that he will not be avenged. Stephen Richardson’s upright figure and sonorous singing was another of the few pluses of the evening. 

 

The final act was at Sparafucile’s place and guess what, he lived in a caravan too. This one was a little the worse for wear at the back and had a ladder going up and through the open rooflite (sic) and another on the far side. Maddalena, slim and visually attractive in a denim mini, was there to do the seduction and saving of the Duke at the cost of Gilda’d self-sacrifice. Rebecca de Pont Davies sang and acted well in both her roles although I have seen much better direction of Maddalena’s vamping. The ultimate incongruity of the production was yet to come however. As Sparafucile insists that the Duke go upstairs to sleep, where he expects to be joined by Maddalena, the fact that caravans do not have upper storeys becomes something of a problem, so the Duke climbs the ladder onto the caravan roof. Okay, we all have imaginations. But there is a storm brewing as Gilda returns disguised as a boy and the orchestra is whipped up to a crescendo to accompany the thunder and lightening. Whether or not the rain dampened the Duke’s ardour, he made an all too obvious exit via the second ladder into the wings.

The killing of Gilda was well portrayed but her body was left in the caravan not taken to the river. Here that Rigoletto makes his final fraught discovery and the curtain came down on his final agonised ‘Ah! La maladezione!’ I normally feel great sympathy for Rigoletto at this point, but in this production, and despite Alan Opie’s vocal efforts, I could never identify him as either jester or father. Usually it is this mix that leads to his decision to pay for the Duke’s assassination and the disastrous outcome that is conveyed in Victor Hugo’s play and more traditional productions of this great operatic flowering of Verdi’s genius. At the curtain Opie looked shattered and disappointed. So was I.

 

At the premiere, Felice Varesi, who had created Macbeth four years earlier, sang the title role. He later described the audience's enthusiastic response to Verdi’s delineation of the title role and his prodigious melodic invention. I regret to say that if the audience of the La Fenice premiere had been presented with a production such as this, so full of silliness and incongruity, they would have laughed it off the stage. Given that the formal opening of the newly named and refurbished auditorium preceded the performance, and that the audience was mainly comprised of sponsors and guests, it was a pity the Opera North did not make a better show for the many newcomers to opera who were present; I had to give several explanations as to what was supposed to be happening in the course of the intervals and afterwards. Some updates clearly do work, as Jonathan Miller’s mafiosi Rigoletto for ENO has shown, but this production will not join that illustrious circle. As well as touring this autumn the production will have a second run next summer.

 

After the show, the press, having enjoyed the extra knee room, width and comfort of the new seating, seen the extended orchestra pit, and experienced the warm yet clear acoustic consequent on the new oak floors, were shown the new rehearsal and stage facilities. These include a flying tower raised by six metres and hydraulic machinery to lift a lorry and scenery to stage level. The rehearsal facilities match the stage size. When the Phase two facilities for the orchestra are finished, the whole company will be on one site which will be a unique state of affairs for Opera North. I can only hope that in the furture the company will justify the commitment and support of their sponsors and public by putting on productions that reflect the music and genius of composers better than this one did. If its producer had listened to Verdi’s music, and better still, had read the composer’s correspondence with his librettist, he may have thought better than inflicting this travesty on one of the greatest works of the lyric theatre.

 

Robert J Farr