Reviewed by James Karas
The Aix-en-Provence
Festival opened its 65th season with a resoundingly successful
production of Rigoletto directed by Canadian Director Robert Carsen.
Rigoletto has been placed in
many venues from a casino in Las Vegas to a high-rise apartment building in New
York but Carsen’s vision and interpretation surpasses all of them. With the
assistance of dramaturge Ian Burton, Carsen makes Rigoletto a clown in a
circus. The scenes that usually take place in the palace of the Duke of Mantua
are transferred to a circus rink. The courtiers of Mantua sit in the stands of
the rink or come down to the performance area.
Carsen enriches the
production with numerous brilliant strokes and inventive touches that make
Verdi’s chestnut look like a new work. A few examples.
During the brief
overture, Rigoletto steps on the stage in front of the curtain carrying a blanket.
He opens the blanket and reveals the naked body of a woman. It is only a limp
mannequin, but we know that it is the corpse of his daughter. Rigoletto grabs
the mannequin, the curtain opens and he joins the partying courtiers in the
first scene of the opera. The mannequin becomes his toy and he even simulates
copulation with it.
The court of the Duke
of Mantua or in this case the circus rink is a full-blown bordello. We have
acrobats doing some magnificent somersaults and other athletic deeds but we
also see bare-breasted women who are engaged in acts of debauchery. The
courtiers are dressed in tuxedos and Rigoletto is dressed as a clown.
Carsen carries the
circus metaphor brilliantly to the end of the opera. When the courtiers abduct
Gilda and bring her to the palace, the Duke visits her. I suppose the courtiers
have already gang-raped her and at times I am not certain what the Duke does
when he sees her in a private room. Carsen knows and practically shows us that
the Duke has sex with her. In fact, he takes off all his clothes, yes, all,
(but does not reveal his front to us), somebody puts a housecoat on him and he climbs
a ladder to his private box to (further?) defile Gilda.
When Gilda comes down,
disheveled and disgraced, she is wearing the Duke’s housecoat. In fact, she
keeps it right to the end. This woman is in love with that man, period.
I will mention one
more brilliant directorial trick. When Monterone (a sonorous Arutjun
Kotchinian) complains about his daughter being disgraced by the Duke, he brings
her body on stage. He curses Rigoletto, of course, and that curse haunts the
jester to the bitter end until it is fulfilled. When Rigoletto realizes that Sparafucile
(a scary and excellent bass Gabor Bretz) killed Gilda instead of the Duke, the
body of Monterone’s daughter is lowered on the stage. This is directorial
imagination at its best.
Baritone George
Gagnidze made a marvelous Rigoletto. His deep mellow voice was full of pathos
and he was magnificent as the clown whose heart is breaking. He does not have a
hunched back since his “deformity” is to be a clown.
Tenor Arturo
Chacón-Cruz was a very disappointing Duke. He is youthful and agile but his
voice had no colour, no feeling and nothing convincing about him. He sounded strained
in the upper register and only adequate in the middle.
The best singing of
the evening was done without a doubt by soprano Irina Lungu as Gilda. She fits
the part physically and has a lovely voice. Her “Caro nome” was full of
tenderness, beautiful phrasing and a delight to hear. Gilda may be stupid but Lungu
made her believable and very attractive. A marvelous performance.
Since we are at the
circus, we have acrobats and dancers that perform real acrobatics at several points
in the opera including during the kidnapping of Gilda. Together with the
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, this production required a small army of
people.
The London Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda played Verdi’s dramatic music
superbly.
The set by Radu
Boruzescu consisted of the circus rink and stands as indicated. There was a box
with a curtain in the middle of the stands where the Duke was initially seen.
The stands remained in place throughout. Gilda’s residence consisted of a small
camper on wheels. There was no need for a ladder here but the courtiers
pretended that they climbed up for the kidnapping. There were a few such
incongruities for those that were paying strict attention to the words of the libretto.
Once again, Carsen
has taken a very familiar work and imposed his vision on it and produced a new
opera while being faithful to the old. A superb achievement.
____
Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi opened on July 4 and will be
performed ten times until July 27, 2013 at the Théâtre de l'Archevêché,
Aix-en-Provence, France. http://festival-aix.com/
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