Rigoletto was the beneficiary, or the victim, take your pick, of yet another “updated” production. The basic idea was, how do we reflect the sin and violence of the court of the Duke of Mantua in more modern times? The choice was, Las Vegas of 1960, with the Mafia and the Rat Pack.
Act 1 opened in a casino, complete with roulette wheel and craps table and plenty of garish neon designs on the back wall depicting martinis, poker hands, dice, women, etc. On both left and right of the stage were elevator doors, and tall cylinders above them with lights that would turn on and off to indicate the position of the elevator in the high-rise. The Duke sang “Questa o quella” wearing a white dinner jacket and holding a microphone to his mouth, while eight chorus girls cavorted about him. Countess Ceprano was dolled up to look for all the world like Marilyn Monroe. Monterone was an Arab sheik. Rigoletto’s exchange with Sparafucile took place at a small bar on the right side of the casino, after hours, with no one else around except the bartender. The supertitles had been updated to go along with the production, so the Duke told Countess Ceprano “You send me to the moon,” and Sparafucile assured Rigoletto that he was “a guy who can get rid of a big problem for a small fee.” The transition to Rigoletto’s home was accomplished by dropping a panel composed of 2-foot circles in a square grid between the front of the stage and the casino proper; when Rigoletto came back from his errand and “helped” with the abduction of the “Countess Ceprano,” he was sent up (blindfolded) in the elevator on the right while the courtiers actually abducted his daughter using the elevator on the left.
Act 2 was set in the Duke’s apartment on an upper floor of the casino; a few steps led up to a wide platform and several pieces of 1960-style furniture, with squared-off arms and backs; behind was just a green curtain. Instead of being led off to his execution, Monterone/the sheik was offed right there with a bullet to the head.
Act 3 was the most successful. Sparafucile ran a seedy nightclub at the edge of town. The nightclub was framed with just enough horizontals and verticals to give the impression of a building, but all of the inside was easily visible, including the pole and pole dancer. Along the back wall were a large number of neon lights, vertical lines leaning slightly to the right. When the orchestra played “lightning” the neon lights flashed along with the music, from left to right. Simplistic perhaps, but very effective. Rather than throwing the body in the river, Sparafucile deposited the body bag in the trunk of a 1960 Cadillac that bore the personalized license plate SPARFUC, the idea being that he would drive the body to the river.
Our cast:
Duke of Mantua: Piotr Beczala
Rigoletto, his court jester: Željko Lucic
Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter: Diana Damrau
Sparafucile, assassin for hire: Štefan Kocán
Maddalena, Sparafucile’s sister: Oksana Volkova
Conductor: Michele Mariotti
Production: Michael Mayer
Set Designer: Christine Jones
Pride of place must go to Željko Lucic’s total involvement in the role of Rigoletto; he’s on his way to owning that role. Although Štefan Kocán may not have been the most sonorous Sparafucile I’ve ever heard, his final low note in Act 1 as he tells Rigoletto his name was the longest-held I’ve ever heard—yes, a show-off, but worth showing off. Piotr Beczala’s “Questa o quella” was wonderful; of course the microphone was a fake. Even with a lot of fine singing, the production concept reached further than it could grasp, and was more jarring and twisted than effective. Barely a beta.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment