Intermezzo

Those guys again

How soon will we all be sick of the bi-bicententennial I wonder? Opera is of course a peripheral activity for the LSO, but they're still doing their bit to celebrate Wagner and Verdi's joint 200th birthday.

Their 2013/14 season opens on 15 September with a concert performance of Rigoletto, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The underrated Dimitri Platanias takes the title role, with Desirée Rancatore as Gilda and Giuseppe Filianoti as the Duke.

On 28 November, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony is paired with the second act of Tristan und Isolde. Daniel Harding conducts Katarina Dalayman, Peter Seiffert and Christianne Stotijn. A major influence on Wagner's work was Roméo et Juliette. which turns up on 6 and 13 November with soloists Olga Borodina and Ildar Abdrazakov. Gergiev conducts as part of a Berlioz series running throughout the season.

The LSO's year is otherwise, as you might expect, light on opera, though Mark Elder's extracts from Der Rosenkavalier sung by Anne Schwanewilms, Sarah Connolly and Lucy Crowe should not be missed (8 May 2014).

Full season details to be released later this month.

No more Planet of the Apes

The Bavarian State Opera recently ditched their notorious but memorable 'Planet of the Apes' Rigoletto for an altogether tamer version.

Arpád Schilling's new production, economically set in a stadium, has been dubbed a 'concert in costume' by some of the German critics. It features Joseph Calleja, Franco Vassallo and Patricia Petibon, with Marco Armiliato conducting.

You can see for yourself on Sunday 30 December when the opera is streamed live from Munich at 18:00 CET (5pm UK).

 Here's a trailer:

Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House

Rigoletto - Royal Opera House, 30 March 2012

Numerous revivals down the line, David McVicar's Rigoletto (original director nowhere to be seen) is looking as flaccid as the solitary blink-and-you'll-miss-it todger that crowns its opening orgy scene. (An orgy which, incidentally, strikes me as considerably more heterosexual than on previous outings - anyone watching closely enough to confirm?).

2:10 minute warning

Recorded at the weekend; a preview of what Vittorio Grigolo may be getting up to on Friday, when the latest revival of Rigoletto opens at Covent Garden.

(With thanks to Kyoko).

Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House

Rigoletto - Royal Opera House, 11 October 2010

Viewing the gaudy corpse of a once-magnificent Zeffirelli production on the Met stage can make you wonder why his work was once considered bold and daring. Yet look at some of the frozen-in-youtube performances, the ones he actually, personally, directed – the famous Callas/Gobbi Tosca for example – and you sense the hand of a theatrical master. The difference between then and now of course is that then he was there to shape every detail of the performances. Over the years they’ve become debased and diluted by a series of indifferent in-house directors and all we see now are the vast, vulgar sets and the preposterous costumery.

Is David McVicar’s theatrical legacy headed the same way?

who's got the hump?

  

find out on the next page..............

 

Rigoletto from Mantua - Act 1 on video

Courtesy of teresa59, here's the whole of last night's Rigoletto first act live from Mantua, in convenient bite-sized chunks:

**********the rest is over the page*************

Rigoletto from Mantua

BBC2's live staging of Rigoletto from Mantua with Placido Domingo in the title role begins tonight. Act 1 is at 7.15pm, followed by Act 2 tomorrow at 12.55pm and Act 3 at 10.30pm. Watch live here. 

It is scheduled for a DVD release, which means there's a strong possibility it won't reach the iPlayer. So set those recorders.

Alternatively,try ZDF (which may only be available in the ZDF broadcasting region). This stream is delayed until 23.50 CET, presumably to make way for yet another repeat of the world's greatest ever TV series, Kommissar Rex.

ZDF also have a load of photos and videos.

Rigoletto humps again at the Royal Opera House

Rigoletto - Royal Opera House, 10 February 2009

No wonder David McVicar likes to direct his own revivals. When it's left to someone else, as it was here, you can see just what McVicar adds.  He turns mere singers into McKellens and Denchs, titans of the stage, living, breathing characters. Subtract that and what's left is stylish but conservative window-dressing, Zeffirelli with t1ts. Everyone in this Rigoletto stood in the correct place and pointed in the right direction. But blank what-do-I-do-next faces and stock gestures don't make for compelling drama.

Conductor Daniel Oren's turgid pacing didn't help. In a few places, like the final act's storm scene, the music really came alive. The rest was ponderous and drab, sucking the life out of this most vital of operas drip by drip.

There were at least a few decent individual performances, though none of them came in the bewb'n'botty-splattered first scene. Perhaps they were distracted by the bared flesh wobbling away in all directions. At any rate, only the ever-dependable Iain Paterson as Monterone could summon up a creditable performance.  Francesco Meli yelped like the understudy of an understudy; Leo Nucci simply shouted his way through. Car-crash stuff.

But something must have happened in the two long minutes it took the huge revolving set to squeak its castle wall side around 180' and display the humble shack hidden behind. When they came back Francesco Meli displayed a firm metallic light tenor, like a sort of heavyweight JDF. the sound is thrilling, even if not every note's quite on target. But he was no master of the court, let alone a rampant testosterone-fuelled predator - more like the Duke's kid brother in fact. It's not easy to be secksy in striped pantaloons but better direction might have lent him some authority. Or he could just watch Kurt Rydl, whose Sparafucile was positively scary.

Leo Nucci was - well - Leo Nucci. Maybe no longer the finest Verdi baritone around in terms of strictly technical beauty. The voice is rubbed bare in rather too many patches for that. But full of colour and character, and still able to sustain a melting legato.

For a soprano with Olympia on her resume, Ekaterina Siurina's top notes were surprisingly tentative, and once or twice craftily dodged altogether. But she has a naturally beautiful, silvery tone (and the most unbelievable Slavic cheekbones) and her Gilda was sweet and affecting. Probably the best performance of the night, certainly the most consistent.

There was plenty of enthusiastic ovating, some of it over the top of the music, but more of the glitter drops off this production each time it's aired. It's obviously tempting for Covent Garden to bring back its guaranteed bankers time after time, but they need more care the older they get, not less.

   

     

Rigoletto on the Planet of the Apes (somewhere in Munich)

Rigoletto - Bayerische Staatsoper, Nationaltheater, Munich, 28 July 2007
(Münchner Opernfestspiele 2007)

Setting Rigoletto on the Planet of the Apes struck the first night audience a couple of years ago as a concept so ridiculous that many came armed with bananas before they'd even seen it, ready to pelt the director at the end. But it does work on some levels. Portraying the Duke and his retinue as monkeys shows how far they have yielded to their animal appetites.

More problematical is the casting of Rigoletto himself as a human lost astronaut/Charlton Heston figure. It underlines his outsider status in the society in which he finds himself, but it also implies he is more 'human' (more civilised, moral, intelligent) than the apes amongst which he finds himself, whereas the opera makes it clear he shares their values. So he becomes a more heroic figure in this production than Verdi intended. It also brings associated problems with the role of Gilda, cast as a human daughter, yet desirable to the apes - if her human status doesn't isolate her from ape society, then why should it for her father? Etc - the more one considers Dorris Dorrie's production concept, the less it stacks up.

What it does offer is many opportunities for fabulous design and choreography. The revolving sets with their crumbling buildings, the faux-Vuitton costumes of the ducal retinue, the bottom-flashing monkey chorus all form a no-expense-spared spectacle.

Fortunately the musical side wasn't as problematical. Carlos Alvarez anchored it with a splendid Rigoletto. A little too far on the youthful and sprightly side maybe - where he should have been abjectly pathetic at the abduction of his daughter, he instead looked ready to kick some monkey butt. But he was generally a lot more convincing, able to switch from humour to tenderness to tragedy. The puffy spacesuit was an unnecessary distraction though - I hope it wasn't as uncomfortable as it looked. I suspect Alvarez would be even better in a production that didn't compromise his characterisation the way this one did.

Elena Mosuc was spectacular as Gilda, cruising through the incredible technical demands of the role as if they were nothing. She can put enormous power into her sweet, bell-like voice when she needs to, and float the pianissimos too. Her Caro Nome was absolutely the highlight of the night.

I was really looking forward to seeing Joseph Calleja as the Duke, but unfortunately he pulled out a few days ago. He was replaced by Piotr Beczala, who gave a rather uneven performance, managing best with the quieter intimate moments. His first act duet with Gilda was beautifully done, but generally both his voice and his presence were on the lightweight side for this role and he was overshadowed by his colleagues.

Maurizio Muraro as Sparafucile had the assured presence that Beczala lacked. He was appropriately got up as a masked Darth Vader lookalike. His restrained menace was perfectly pitched. His sister Maddalena, mezzo Elena Maximova, bravely sported a skintight devilish red bodystocking, but she could sing too, and was suitably alluring and manipulative in the final act quartet.

If the singing wasn't 100%, the orchestral support was impeccable, especially the slowly-built suspense at the end of the first and last acts. No bananas from the audience either - they loved it, and this Rigoletto got plenty of applause, complete with about six (I lost count) curtain calls.