Rigoletto, San Francisco Opera, Sept. 15 2012

My first San Francisco Opera performance of the 2012-2013 season was free: for the last few years, the company has streamed a live performance directly to AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants, for approximately 30,000 attendees. Admission is free, but bottled water at the concession stand is $5, hot chocolate in the stands is $6, and the famous garlic fries are $7.50. No problem bringing your own food, but they don’t like already-opened bottles. So I did what I do at airports: brought an empty bottle and filled it from the water fountain.

The performance started at 8:00 pm and went until about 10:30. In San Francisco, that means cold. Perhaps not cold by the standards of late fall football games in Michigan, but cold enough that a cap for the head, a scarf for the neck, three layers of upper clothing, and a blanket across the knees felt really good.

The production used the same Michael Yeargan sets, seen on three prior occasions: 1997, 2001, and 2006. It’s a bit spare and stark for my tastes. A construct common to all of the acts was the sides of two buildings, said buildings extending to the left and right, with an open space in between. These walls marched off into the distance with an exaggerated perspective, intended to make the stage look deeper than it really is. Each wall was punctuated by a succession of rectangular openings with arched tops, each with a square window above it. This construct represented, respectively, the interior of the Duke’s castle, the alleyway outside Rigoletto’s home, the Duke’s castle again, and with the addition of a “reflecting pool” between the walls (i.e. the river), the street outside Sparafucile’s tavern. For the final part of the first act, the interior of Rigoletto's home slid out from the right. We saw a shallow two-level room, the interior space occupied only a box (for sitting on) on the first floor and stairs leading up to the second floor. The entire room was painted a slightly dark red that made me think of a bordello. Sparafucile’s tavern used the same slide-out room, with the addition of horizontal strips on the downstage side of the room (think lath and plaster, without the plaster). Further downstage were a table and a couple of chairs. Upstairs was the bed to which the duke retired. I'm tempted to ask for a new production, but given what we have seen in the last few years with Macbeth and Tannhäuser, it may be a case of “be careful what you ask for.”

Our cast
Rigoletto: Zeljko Lucic
Gilda: Aleksandra Kurzak
The Duke of Mantua: Francesco Demuro
Sparafucile: Andrea Silvestrelli    
Maddalena: Kendall Gladen    
Count Monterone: Robert Pomakov
Borsa: Daniel Montenegro    
Marullo: Joo Won Kang    
A Page: Laura Krumm
Countess Ceprano: Laura Krumm
Giovanna: Renée Rapier
Count Ceprano: Ryan Kuster    
An Usher: Jere Torkelsen
Conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Director: Harry Silverstein    
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan

Of the principals, my favorite was Zeljko Lucic, who portrayed his role convincingly, though without the pronounced limp displayed by others. Aleksandra Kurzak sang well, but failed to involve me in her character to any great extent. Francesco Demuro had an edge to his voice that did not appeal. Of the subsidiary roles, I continue to be a big fan of Andrea Silvestrelli, who can hit all of Sparafucile’s low notes with great impact. With his tousled hair and scraggly beard, he looked the part of the assassin as well. Kendall Gladen, as his sister, was very impressive, not only for her singing but her acting as well. She made tremendous use of her African-American face when she rolled her eyes in response to the Duke’s avowals of love. A beta.