Rigoletto: The Killer, The Jester, His Daughter, Her Lover.
The SF Opera advertises this new season as the first of a new era: an era of glamour and sophistication and respect for the traditions of the lyrical arts. Rigoletto, which opened last Saturday night, is thus a wink to the previous era; a proof that, while marketing material might promote swift shifts and clean breaks between eras, the actual production of the shows carries a lag, and transitions go through shades of grey. This Rigoletto production is more glamorous than, say, a Planet of the Apes version (and you must click on the link and check out the pictures of Gilda coming out of her space capsule, honest to goodness, just to witness what we have avoided), but the surrealist set inspired by Chirico are not exactly flamboyant: they are rather dry and minimalist, and have been seen on this stage a few times before, last in 2001.
We were going to make a snarky comment about the crimson theme of the set: it is the only color, the rest is black and white; and the interiors are only red: walls, furnitures, stairs, all in the same uniform color. Rigoletto sings "Do I foretell disaster?" before rushing inside the house, and he might as well be talking about interior design and feng shui. However, that the set replies in such an obvious manner to the question Rigoletto asks should not be construed as anything negative: Verdi's score does as well. The first ominous chord of the overture tells you right away that there won’t be a happy ending, and that chord is right back when he asks.
Praise for Paolo Gavanelli and Mary Dunleavy, pictured above courtesy of Terrence McCarthy/SF Opera, after the jump.
Rigoletto is a sturdy opera: Verdi's masterpiece can be pulled in any staging direction -- it will always fall back on its feet on the sheer strength of its music. It sounds like a compilation of the most famous arias of Italian opera just by itself. And the relatively bare set was more than offset by lush singing. There are two absolutely magnificent singers in this production: Paolo Gavanelli performs Rigoletto as a second nature. He has sung the role on major stages close to two hundred times, and knows it inside and out. We were impressed by how many voices Paolo had for Rigoletto. Rigoletto is a split personality: jester by day, he is a cynical man making fun of --and enemies out of -- the court’s noblemen. At night, he is a loving father trying to protect his virginal daughter, Gilda, from the evil world he enables during the day. Paolo sings the first one in a truculent, powerful voice, and finds a subtly different voices, more plaintive, for the second, almost as if two singers were sharing the part.
Mary Dunleavy's Gilda is as graceful as can be. Her voice reflects the purity of the character: clear of pitch and vibrant, innocent and youthful. It does not hurt that she looks her character, in a candid white tunique and long blond locks. Actually, she looked eerily similar to the delightful naked woman who appeared during the ribaldries of the first scene at the court, for a short glimpse, and long gasp in the audience. This woman in turned looked like Botticelli's Birth of Venus, a symbol of purity if we know one. The opera will be broadcast live on Civic Center plaza and in Stanford on Friday, and we hope the filming crew will provide instant replay of the scene. They owe it to us, since the rehearsal of the taping during our performance created some seriously annoying high pitched static noise that had even the conductor complaining at intermission, according to the camerawoman next to us. (If he did indeed complain, Stephen Lord did not show it during the performance, which he conducted exquisitely.)
In her duet "Figlia…Mi Padre" with Rigoletto, Gavanell is just a bit too much of a good thing, as Dunleavy cannot sustain his intensity and he should hold back a little and give her a bit more space. They find the right combination later on, and the right chemistry. Gilda's most famous piece is of course "Caro Nome," which Dunleavy sings as a giddy, love swept, innocent girl, --which means a slighter faster pace than other versions-- and the result was lovely. Dunleavy caught the spirit of the character, but she missed a few details here and there: the minor third arpeggios in "Caro Nome" were a bit slurred, and she fell behind the beat in another aria, which we noticed as her melodic line was doubled in the orchestra. Those are quibbles, however, as we prefer a true Gilda to a perfect one.
The rest of the cast did not disappoint either: Kristinn Sigmundsson is a spooky cold-blooded hitman offering his service to Rigoletto with a voice which sends shivers through the listener’s spine; Katherine Rohrer is a spunky Maddalena, the whore-slash-sister of the killer who baits the victims into his lair. Her voice is a bit coarser than Dunleavy’s, which perfectly fits the character: she’s a street hooker and Gilda is purity incarnate. Greer Grimsley curses Rigoletto, frothing with anger and despair. Then there are a whole bunch of Adler fellows: Kimwana Doner, absolutely luminous in the too short part of Countess Ceprano; Kendall Gladen, showing some comedic acting skills as Gilda's maid; and the ubiquitous Egene Brancoveanu (he is three for three this season, appearing in all the operas so far), again very charismatic as one of the noblemen.
The only slightly frustrating performance came from Giuseppe Gipali, the tenor singing the Duke. The Duke is seducer and a knave who rapes poor Gilda (or so the crimson sheet she wears over her white robe as she escapes from her kidnapping leads us to believe), but Gipali's voice is too pretty, too clean, and not powerful enough to convey the sexuality and the perversity of the character. We admired his breathing technique, his abs do a lot of visible work, because we could not get into the emotions of his character. Maybe the camera crew can zoom on his diaphragm on Friday -- singing is more physical than it seems.
Rigoletto
Remaining Performances: Tue. October 3, 8 pm, Fri. October 6, 8 pm, Mon. October 9, 7:30 pm, Thu. October 12, 7:30 pm, Sun. October 15, 2 pm, Sat. October 21, 8 pm, Tue. October 24, 7:30 pm and Sun. October 29, 2 pm.
Box office: 864-3330