Rigoletto/ Glyndebourne on Tour
Rule One of the New York Stock Exchange: “Know your client. ”
It’s something the director of Rigoletto Christiane Lutz might have taken on board. The audience at Glyndebourne is elderly. I saw few there last night under 65. They expect a traditional Rigoletto but this is not what they got.
Rigoletto is the court jester to the Duke of Mantua, conflicted by the love of his daughter Gilda and the seduction of her by his philandering boss. It all ends in tragedy when Rigoletto arranges the murder of the Duke but the assassins kill his daughter instead.
This plot was changed by the director to Gilda being the illegitimate daughter of the Duke which raises issue of incest when she is seduced by the Duke and changes the whole dynamic of the relationship between Rigoletto and Gilda.
It also confused the audience as there was no reference to this in the synopsis based on the actual story. I heard members of the audience explaining the plot to confused co-guests.
The second departure was to set the story not in 16th century Mantua but a 1930s Hollywood studio and model Rigoletto on Charlie Chaplin.
Thus the opening scene was a newsreel interview with Chaplin who at various points in the opera returned to write “forward” on the floor. Various accoutrements of the studio – director’s chairs, film cans, overhead lights even a casting couch – are strewn across the set. Again unnecessary.
It rather reminded me of the regrettable Magic Flute earlier in the year set in Hotel Sacher at 1900 Vienna where waitresses in a hotel wore suffragette sashes. The Magic Flute is about freemasonry not women’s voting rights. Similarly Rigoletto is complex in story and psychology without adding the director’s own interventions and agenda.
Fortunately Rigoletto is such a fine opera, some regard it as Verdi’s best, that you can only do so much damage.
The arias are all of high quality especially La Dona e monile – ironically for the director meaning woman is fickle.
Georgian baritone Nikolocz Lagvilava gets his big voice around Rigoletto, South African soprano Vuvu Mpofu looked the part – or rather a part- but her voice was too shrill. I liked Matteo Lippi as the Duke of Mantua.
One constant irritation for me is the failure of an opera to finish on time. This was due to finish at 9.15 pm. It finished after 9.20pm and there were innumerable curtain calls. Then the auditorium has to empty. It was 9.35pm when I met up with my driver. I am fortunate that I was home shortly after 10pm but many are not so local.
From tour to festival is 5 year gestation. I cant see this Rigoletto making it.
