Customer Reviews

Verdi - Rigoletto / Downes, Gavanelli, Schafer, Alvarez, Royal Opera House

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Oh those naughty Brits! Who would ever have thought that nudity would be a part of a Verdi opera? Well, it is, in the first scene of Act I, and it is for this reason that I caution prospective buyers. But if you know the story of the libertine Duke of Mantua (originally the tenor part was to be King Francis I of France, but Italian censors said "no" to that), you will understand that the nudity and behavior of the Duke's court is that of a totally corrupt ruler. And although I was unprepared to see naked people in one of my favorite operas, it is, vocally, visually and sonically the very best operatic performance I have yet experienced on DVD. All of the singers are simply superb. Soprano Christine Schaefer is perfect in the role of Gilda; she is visually ideal as a young woman, and her vocal skills and interpretation are first rate. Marcello Alvarez, one of the two top tenors of today (the other is Ramon Vargas)is vocally stupendous as the Duke, yet from the outset, you will hate the character while loving Alvaerz' vocal interpretation. This Duke is a spoiled, arrogant, womanizing wretch! Paolo Gavanelli sings the title role brilliantly. His is a demanding part that requires substantial acting and vocal skills, and aside from an occasional excessive vibrato on sustained mid-voice notes, Gavanelli is simply great. Edward Downes conducts with both sensitivity and authority. The digital picture is first rate, but in this performance, the Dolby 5.1 sound has to be heard to be believed. It give a stunning depth and richness to the music, yet one is able to differentiate between instruments, and localize soloists on stage. So if you tend to the traditional, you may find the nudity and sexuality to be too much. But if you want to experience a vocally stunning and dramatically effective performance, you will not find better opera on DVD. But you may want to alert the neighbors, because this is one disc that will demand a boost in the volume control.

First let me very briefly dispose of the purely musical aspect of this 2001 (not 1985 as indicated by Amazon) Royal Opera production staged by David McVicar. With any newly acquired DVD of an opera or ballet, I usually like to simply listen to the soundtrack without the distraction of the visual action, either soon after watching it the first time or sometimes even before, so that I can better concentrate on the music alone. Few DVD productions can match the best available on CD, and this Rigoletto is no exception. Without going into a detailed analysis, my overall reaction was that it's okay, but not particularly good; I quickly found much to be unimpressed with, or even dislike about, the conducting and each of the principals; and the shouts and clatter of the crowd in the first act intrude far more than the composer's intended rising and falling murmurs one would normally expect. All the same, granting artistic license in the interpretation of the score, this is by no means a poor rendering.

Turning to the visual presentation, I must first confess to generally preferring a traditional 19th Century look in most operas, but here Michael Vale's stark and spare (and uniformly ugly) sets, especially the torn chain-link fence, struck me as effectively symbolizing the cruelty and terror of Verdi's 'Rigoletto'.

But McVicar's reinterpretation does violence to the story itself, and its characters. Both the embittered jester Rigoletto, as stunted and twisted emotionally as he is physically, and his naive and innocent daughter Gilda, remain basically true to their proper roles. However, both the Duke and his courtiers are badly misread. The Duke of Mantua is a narcissist, a careless cynical libertine with the power of his 16th Century ducal court to command at least a facade of fealty from his courtiers. 'La donna e mobile' -- woman is fickle -- is meant to be supremely ironic, since it is the Duke himself, not at all the various women to whom he turns his attentions, who is 'fickle.' He makes a career of 'seducing' (in its older Don Juan sense implying a large degree of what we now call rape) every woman who might catch his fancy. We are given to understand that he has so 'seduced' many or most of the wives and daughters of the noblemen of his court. These courtiers, helpless to protest except under pain of imprisonment or death (e.g., Monterone), humor their Duke by encouraging and facilitating new seductions if for no other reason than to distract him from their own women whom they naturally have no desire to share (e.g., Ceprano). This is why -- despite Warwick Thomson's claim of its being "by no means gratuitous" in his Amazon review -- McVicar's opening orgy of flagrant bawds, improbably egged on by their menfolk, makes hash of the story, and emasculates the more subtle ironic horror of 'La donna e mobile.'

I have no problem with bared breasts, full frontal nudity, grotesque sexual play or nude simulated sex onstage, when it serves some purpose beyond merely gratuitous titillation -- and particularly when it doesn't throw the sense of the story out of whack. Here McVicar in his reaching for the shock of the new seems to have borrowed a page or two from 1969's 'Oh! Calcutta!' Today when we need only turn on a computer or go to a neighborhood movie theater to find full frontal nudity and explicit sex, there seems to still persist a smugness about how openminded we can be on encountering this sort of thing in the Royal Opera House. From McVicar's interviews, it's clear that he's toying with his audience, sexing-up his productions to see what he can get away with.

After writing this I have come upon Melanie Eskenazi's professional review online, which finally breaks from the crowd in not fawning over this 'Rigoletto'; she makes different points and in more detail, but I agree with her entirely.


Addendum: If you're really looking for NC-17 opera complete with full nudity, passionate seduction, violent degradation, rape, and murder, where it all is actually integral to the story rather than gratuitously twisting the story out of shape, check out Petr Weigl's film of Shostakovich's 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk', set to the definitive Rostropovich recording with Galina Vishnevskaya, Nicolai Gedda and the London Philharmonic. Portions of the musical score are cut for the film, and the Russian soundtrack is lip-synched by Czech actors, but the synchronization is expertly done, and the film is emotionally stunning in a way that entirely escapes McVicar's 'Rigoletto'. Amazon also lists two other productions of this opera, but I haven't yet seen either of these.

First - the subject of sexual content...I thought it was a startling attention grabber at the beginning and was very effective at portraying a corrupt society. It reminded me of another wonderful opera production that is also well represented on DVD: the English National Opera's wonderful presentation of one of Handel's many operatic masterpieces ARIODANTE.
Seeing this RIGOLETTO for the first time - I wondered why many outspoken opera-lovers object so much to nudity that would be barely noticed in a movie.
In any case - for post-modernists - this is an outstanding RIGOLETTO. It appears from other reviews that everyone appreciates the cast and well they should! It really does bring an opera to life more vividly when the performers look like they could be the characters they portray - and in addition to that, these people act and sing SO well!
If you read these reviews and generally feel repulsed at the idea of nudity in RIGOLETTO, then steer clear of this dvd. If you prefer videos of staged operas as opposed to movie versions (like the Pavarotti RIGOLETTO), this is for you.

Be prepared for a startingly novel view on this old warhorse. McVicar's production for London's Royal Opera brings out unabashedly all of the libretto's sexual tensions, usually only hinted at in traditional productions, stunningly laid out and planted before the viewer's very eyes throughout the whole work which characterises the production's conception. In purely vocal terms the very accomplished cast is led by the immaculate Gilda of Christine Schäfer (yes, the same one you encountered "singing" Pierrot Lunaire exemplarily for Pierre Boulez on a DG cd, of all people), prudently set apart by McVicar as apparently the only sane person in the whole lot of characters in spite of her falling for "Gualtier Maldé". The Argentinian Marcelo Álvarez is an outstanding Duke, cynical, libidinous and unhinbited as perhaps any other recent exponent of the rôle, his physical presence no doubt visually supporting this. Gavanelli is a Rigoletto vocally in the grand Italian tradition, right in timbre in spite of some occasional rapid vibrato but exemplary in his diction, a rather deranged character in McVicar's view who walks about the stage in crotches; one quickly sees why he's rightly sought after by the world's leading opera houses for this rôle. The other important parts, those of Sparafucile and Gilda, are also very well cast, especially the latter who must be one of the horniest Gildas on record. Visually, the production subscribes to current visions on the ways of people of wealth of four or five centuries ago: exquisite fabrics enrobing people who appear not to have visited a bathtub for many months (gone seem to be the days in which period plays, operas and movies showed immaculate participants). Sir Edward Downes' conducting with swift, vigorous tempi provokes inspired playing from the ROH's Orchestra and the sound really justifies your connecting your player to a quality sound system if you still haven't done so: it has to be heard to be believed. Décors & staging take full advantage of the ROH's recent refurbishing, Rigoletto's and Spafucile's respective dwellings depicting a timeless and appropriate shantiness of tin roofing and carton walling that recall today's third-world capitals' misery belts. Camerawork is very good, and curiously the BBC take great pains in making you believe this was taped live by inserting applause at the "right" places (like after arias and ensembles or at Sir Edward's entrances to the pit at the beginning of acts); only when this applause tends to sound the same one time after the other you begin to suspect and your suspicions confirm at the end --or at least so seemed in my case-- when applause de-synchonises with what's actually happening on stage when curtain calls are taking place once the work has finished, but this is only a minor quibble. And for a change, and this is a big plus, this opera dvd does bring extra material, with a plot lecture and an enlightening interview with the producer. If you are one of those who don't make totems out of the big figures of old but are rather looking for a current, up-to-date version of Rigoletto, look no further. Mind, though, that the production is far from the "good-to-introduce-the-kids-to-opera" world.

I loved everything about this production. I can see that a lot of work went into the design of the set however I didn't care for the finished product - solely a matter of opinion. Without making this a long review, I thought the entire cast was fabulous except for Christine Schafer as Gilda. In a production that was big on showing stark contrast, I found her presence to be one dimensional and uninspired. She could have raised it a notch or two to bring life to 'Gilda.' The superb acting and interpretations of the others completely washed her out.

Also I don't agree with all the ruckus about the nudity in the beginning being gratuitous. I didn't expect it and when I saw it I literally gasped in shock. But I believe that was the director's intent. Yes I was shocked but I didn't find it gratuitous at all. It helped to create an atmosphere that brought a stark contrast between the palatial surroundings inside and the violent depravity going on outside. If nudity bothers you or you prefer having the ideas left to your imagination instead then you will most likely be disappointed with the opening scene. But it was a nice change from the status quo as far as interpretation is concerned. It's a keeper!

This version of Verdi's classic, Rigoletto, performed by The Royal Opera at Covent Gardens, England offers all the features you would expect in a DVD: great digital picture and sound, anamoprphic wide screen, and special features about Verdi and a slide synopsis of the opera which is quite good, though brief. The performances are strong and the sound recording is excellent. The production value, too, is without flaws, except that this version is a darker presentation than I would have preferred. Darker, meaning, post-modernistic, apocalyptic set design which seems to be the rage nowadays - a rage that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Modernism has to be used wisely, and here, while it is not offensive, didn't lend itself to the color one might expect from this opera. I never quite knew if the setting of the Duke's castle was inside or outside of the towering wall that I guess is supposed to represent his residence. The minimalist approach, as I said, has its drawbacks. Still, watching a performance on a DVD is so much more preferable than tape that it makes up for some of the shortcomings in set design. The performances, particularly that of Paolo Gavanelli, as Rigoletto, are superb - truly superb. He has a wonderful baritone voice that never falters or barks. Christine Schäfer, soprano, is marvelous as Gilda, his daughter. She delivers a sensitive and beautifully acted performance. Indeed, all the performances are outstanding, gritty and real. What distinguishes this version from the others I have seen is the full frontal nudity in the opening scene which introduces us to the debauchery that ostensibly occurs inside the Duke of Mantua's great hall regularly. Bare-breasted women and the stripping of both a buffed male and female comprimario forced to engage in a sex act (not depicted) was really unnecessary - and the audience showed its displeasure when after the first Act, the applause was tepid, at best - as compared to the other Acts where the applause was thunderous. It's not that the full frontal nudity was not appealing, rather it was almost forced. It wasn't one of many things occurring in the scene, it became the central focus. It was more like, okay folks; here is our - gasp, genitalia. Had the simulated sex act occurred in a background context with other things occurring all around it might have been more palatable, but making it center stage - for so short a duration - was almost laughable. This kind of "peek-a-boo" simulated sex is more of an insult than turn on. But, it is brief, very brief. Everything shows and then goes, and what you have left is a wonderful opera, performed by an outstanding cast that makes this DVD a good buy and one which I recommend.

Gavanelli as Rigoletto was quite outstanding. I was disappointed by Alvarez. His singing was quite forced; it had no squillo at all. For a moment I thought I was watching a broadway play about a back alley gangster in the 50s. His voice failed to be seductive (questo o quella was very flat), and there was no charm. The quartet at Sparafucile's house was very mediocre. Monterone did not sound ominous enough. He is supposed to represent absolute morality; his voice is supposed to be that of God throwing thunderbolts down to earth.

Gilda I found charming and naive enough to be credible.

The nuditity failed to add anything artistic to the opera. True opera fans should not need it to appreciate the music. Thus, I'm not sure of the intention of the producers.

Overall I think the Pavarotti version, with Edita Gruberova and Wixell has much better singing.

Ok, so the first scene is over the top. Not only is the nudity unnecessary (do we really need this to sell tickets to "Rigoletto"?), it is out of keeping with the rest of the opera. Life in the Duke's court is corrupt, but there has to be a facade of decorum to make the Duke so appealing to so many women. And in case you are wondering, Ms. Schafer does not appear nude, nor (sorry, ladies) does Mr. Alvarez. Nevertheless, they are both attractive enough to make the love at first sight credible and are both exciting performers.
However, the main reason to purchase this video/DVD is the wonderfully nuanced performance of Paolo Gavanelli in the title role. He is a wonderful actor, one who knows when it is necessary to sing quietly as well as loudly. He has clearly joined the ranks of the great Rigolettos.

Okay, usually I rant on about the idiocy of trying to re-stage classic operas and outdo the creative vision of the composer. This has been a particular gripe of mine regarding Wagner operas.
On the other hand I would concede that it really does depend on the opera: if the particular location is of real significance, if the location is supposedly set 'outside of space and time', then it is pretty important to stick to the orignal script, so to speak. An opera based on a particularly significant historical event or period that tries to update for a modern audience by dressing up the characters as, for example nazis, is both patronizing to the audience in its assumption that they will have no understanding of the historical period originally conveyed by the opera, and it also serves to make a nonsense of the script (libretto) for the most part. A Wagner opera, on the other hand, that turns the Gods into mafiosi gangsters breaks our ability to suspend disbelief by placing our thoughts back into the real world.
So, the point? you ask, well this Rigoletto production quite cuts with tradition and this has been cited as a fault by some. It is, however, an opera based on a less than successful play by Victor Hugo - Le Roi s'amuse. The play was cut after less than two full showings due to its unpopularity and it was only Verdi and Piave that resurrected widespread interest in the themes in the play. The opera was originally set in Paris as a means of portraying the hypocritical and malignant rule of the French leaders in power at the time but this was censored and ultimately modified via placing the characters in an effective fictional world - the state of Mantua. On this basis, we can say that the world being portrayed in this opera is not of great historical significance; it is certainly not as important as, for example, sticking to the script when adapting the English history plays of Shakespeare - modernizing Richard 2nd to transform the characters into modern day politicians being a particularly irritating example of patronizing the audience in the manner I mentioned above.
I think that it is quite reasonable, therefore, to say that modernizing Rigoletto is artistically justified, at least if it is done in the right way. Again, it makes no sense to make the characters of Rigoletto mafia hitmen since this conflicts with out ability to suspend disbelief. On the other hand if the world is set, as in this production, in a somewhat nebulous domain, then we can focus rather on the situation as opposed to the place. This is what makes this production of Rigoletto seem credible to me. Furthermore, McVicar - as he points out in the documentary that accompanies the dvd of this production - has adapted this production to make it more shocking, in essence to manifest in a watching audience a sense of shock and horror in our desensitized age that might be comparable to that of the more polite epoch that was apparent in Verdi's day. I think this is quite legitimate although it is arguable as to the extent to which such a precise effect can be re-created by focusing on so narrow a dimension as 'shock value'. Nevertheless, the sense of Rigoletto's isolation and distress seemed more acute to me than in any other production I have seen precisely because the production and staging is so gritty and raw: in a word 'modern'. As McVicar mentions, the sweet music outer layer of 'Rigoletto' is neatly juxtaposed by the sinister psychological interior of the court aptly reflecting the central theme of the opera of the reality of exterior beauty often belying or perhaps concealing inner ugliness while outward ugliness may conceal depth and splendour.
I have seen a criticism of this production that the explicit opening scene serves to unravel the inner ugliness of the state and of the Duke all at once rather than allowing it to be gradually unpealed over the course of the opera. Perhaps this is a just criticism although I would suggest that making the brutality of the state immediately apparent helps us understand Rigoletto as a being who must play evil at the court in order to be accepted and survive and that only outside the court - in the next scene - do we see that ultimately he has that within which passes show, his suit of woe being alleviated only in the presence of his daughter Gilda. This is all perfectly consistent with the vision that McVicar has of the opera and I think that it comes over more clearly here than in other productions I have seen.

Some other points regarding actual performances in this production. Paolo Gavanelli is truly outstanding! As good an acting-singing performance as you can get I think. Not only does he throw everything into his acting that he really does look genuinely upset at the end of the opera, but he sings Rigoletto with a sort of refined beauty. Rigoletto is often sung overly harshly but Gavanelli maintains the harshness of Rigoletto - the exterior ugliness - while allowing for moments of beauty to break out from within when he sings of his dead wife in the 'Dei non parlar di misero' piece and in other moments with Gilda. This really does add extra dimensionality to Rigoletto and again I think is consistent with the overall vision of the work as put forth by McVicar.
Other performances are not as strong by comparison: I am not overly keen on Schaefer as Gilda whose voice lacks sweetness during Gilda's 'innocent stage' but she has the strength to be heard clearly during the important quartet 'bella figlia del amore' which actually serves all the singers well; Alvarez as the Duke is good but I had hoped for more - the power of the voice is there but he just doesn't seem to be on top form - he certainly lacks the clarity of tone that, for example, Domingo has in the Levine/New York Met dvd production.

Still, it is Gavanelli performance and McVicar's vision that are really key to this production and make it an essential purchase. These are two artists that between them produce, I think, a really important updated interpretation of Rigoletto that resonates with meaning in the modern world.

Rigoletto was a triumph for Verdi, and was the first in a trio of operas of unprecedented success. Rigoletto was followed in short order by "Il Trovatore" and "La Traviata". It is an outstanding work, and this production by the Royal Opera is generally superb.

Before dwelling on the positives of this production, of which there are many, I want to get my one criticism out of the way. There are several times in this recording where the orchestra is just too loud. I don't know whether that was the case when this production was filmed, or if this is an engineering issue. In any event, there were several times when I couldn't hear the singers. This was particularly disconcerting in the penultimate scene, where I couldn't hear much of the marvelous trio of Gilda, Sparafucile, and Maddalena.

The positives start with the set, a wonderfully dismal, gray, and foreboding vision. Even the Duke's salon looked no more impressive than on old basement. The set was marvelously complemented by some outstanding lighting design. Lighting took center stage in the storm sequence toward the end of Act III. It was all pretty creepy, and lent a sense of hopelessness to the production.

Almost all scenes were very good with excellent pace and tension. The only scene where I felt a bit let down was the actual abduction of Gilda by the courtiers. Gilda didn't seem that bothered. My favorite scene by far was the scene with Gilda, Sparafucile, and Maddalena where Gilda is stabbed. Between excellent acting and singing by the principals, realistic lighting effects, and offstage voices executing perfect Verdi hairpins, I was holding my breath. Even though I knew what would happen, I found myself tearing up when Sparafucile stabbed Gilda.

The singers were excellent. The two smaller roles of the hired killer Sparafucile and his sister Maddalena were marvelously sung by bass Eric Halfvarson and contralto Graciela Araya. Halfvarson was a great villain, with a Yul Brynner look and a gorgeous, round bass. Ms. Araya fought some nerves, but settled in nicely. I loved her costume, it looked like she just stepped off of a performance of "Man of La Mancha" where she was singing Aldonza. Both Halfvarson and Araya created credible characters.

Marcelo Alvarez is one of my favorite tenors, and he turns in a splendid performance here as the Duke of Mantua. He is a very relaxed singer, and has plenty of ping in the high register. Alvarez had a lot of singing to do, and he paced himself beautifully. He also looks the part of the handsome cad, though a bit chunky. His duet with Gilda (E il sol dell'anima) was breathtaking. His acting was very strong.

Christine Schafer turns in a great performance as Gilda. She looked the part, radiant and innocent. Her acting was superb, particularly in her scenes with her father, Rigoletto. Her Act I duet with Rigoletto was just perfect. I also enjoyed her "Caro nome", though she's no Roberta Peters. I loved her voice, though she did have a strange technical habit on some vowels. She started closing up her mouth, which produced some slight nasality. But these times were few and far between. Her sound was generally lovely, and the weight and color of her voice are perfect for this doomed heroine.

Baritone Paolo Gavanelli turns in a performance for the ages as Rigoletto. His singing was uniformly brilliant, with plenty of squillo, great diction, and technical proficiency. His character was amazing, particularly the physicality. He spent the entire opera walking bent beneath his hump, using two walking sticks, and using an unusual gait. The physical endurance required just to walk through the staging is enough, but singing this demanding role on top of it? Wow. My back was hurting just watching him.

As several reviews note, there is nudity in Act I, Scene 1. In my opinion, it was dramatically correct and showed the debauchery of the Duke's court.

Highly recommended.