GUBU Rigoletto

Leaving Munich Opera House on a trip recently, I noted a row of seats at the top of the house with no view of the stage but with dinky seat lamps to allow reading of the libretto while listening. to a performance.  Curious, I thought.

I ran into the cast of Opera Theatre Company's  at a service station on Monday as they journeyed from Dublin to Donegal to present their latest  production of Verdi's Rigoletto. There has been much hand wringing over the lack of a major house in the capital. As a provincial theatre goer, I am much more concerned that we continue to have good touring productions and OTC do a fantastic job of bringing top class singers and musicians  regularly to a theatre near you at reasonable ticket prices. Tonight they are in Kilkenny  at the Watergate Theatre and your last chance to catch them is at the Lime Tree  in Limerick. With at three locals in the cast, Kevin Neville, David Howes and Owen Gilhooly -there should be a rousing reception to close  proceedings at the  Shannonside, Duke's Court.

My review of the production appeared  in Saturday's Irish Examiner http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/opera-review-opera-rigoletto--oreilly-theatre-dublin-332384.html

With a tight word count, there wasn't room for everything and I want to note also the excellent performances of Kate Allen and John Molloy. Both are deliciously dark in character and timbre as the ‘hitman’ Sparafucile and ‘masseuse’, Maddalena. The male chorus of 'scumbags, scangers, spastics and of course eejits' , bearing all manner of gangland weapons are very impressive.

In musical terms this was a superb performance in so many respects. but the production appalled  me. Transformations of the aristocratic milieu of 16th century Mantua to visions of sleazy 20th century underworlds is mainstream stuff in major houses . Jonathan Miller’s enormously popular Mafioso staging for ENO is 30 years old.  Here is the quartet from that production. Sleazy but quite stylish and  retaining a degree of charm, I think.



Picking up the resonance of newspaper reports around an infamous double murder in the 1980's, The current OTC production  appeared to me to be a GUBU Rigoletto.  The plot also  features a double murder, Monterone and Gilda both are dispatched (spoiler alert) Set in a grotesque  'boxing club' set of with prominent portaloo, cage  and other club accoutrements . Singers are never allowed to simply stand still to deliver their arias but are kept busy with bizarre tasks such as rearranging oversized bunnies or simulating sexual activity. Gilda's Cara Nome is performed while zipping the Duke into a large bright yellow onesie.


All this  'provocative' theatrical busyness  does rather drain the energy from the piece. Is the general audience best served by a radical charmless production, I wonder? In her preview interview with me for the Irish  Examiner , Emma Nash spoke about being introduced to the genre by her father at a live performance at Cork Opera House. It seems a shame  that this was not a production you would want a young newbie to see or indeed that I myself would want to revisit. For many who don't travel to see opera , this might be the only production we may have a chance to see in years.  Do we really need a fresh innovative  approach.?

    Suddenly, an option on those 'libretto seats' seem like a rather  good idea.


Rigoletto Promo (Opera Theatre Company) from Opera Theatre Company on Vimeo.

Cathy's Reviews Gritty Urban Carmen http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2013/05/gritty-urban-carmen-opera-theatre.html

Emma Nash Gears Up for Gilda

Emma and Suzanne 

Rising star on the Irish Opera scene, Emma Nash has been  very busy in the last year. I enjoyed her performances in the IYO production of the Rape of Lucretia and in the Der Vampyr at the Everyman, Cork She plays lead role of the ill-fated Gilda in OTC's Rigoletto currently in rehearsal.  My preview appears in today's Irish Examiner. You can read that here http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/putting-a-fresh-twist-on-rigoletto-329065.html 

 I include below some additional  insights into Emma's path to the opera stage that emerged in the interview 

Watch out for her at Wexford, later this year. I hear she is to appear as lead in one of the short works, Hansel and Gretel

Where did you grow up.? Can you tell me a little about your early music training- your first music lessons. 

I grew up in Douglas in Cork and I don't come from a particularly musical family. I remember attending theory lessons from a young age at The Cork School of Music and singing in the junior choir there. It was my mum who first introduced me to theatre and performing, enrolling me in CADA Performing Arts when I was very young. I was bitten by the bug, appearing in Pantomimes and various shows over the years. When I was 17 I was encouraged by my music teacher Alison Johnston in Scoil Mhuire to audition for the Irish Youth Choir. I spent a summer singing with other talented young singers and I was inspired to begin training my voice more seriously. 

 I only began getting my voice trained quite late. I think I always wanted to sing but I didn't know opera would be the path I took. I initially intended to study drama and theatre studies at UCC but when I was offered a joint honours option with music the singing training took over completely. Opera was a way to combine my two great passions; singing and acting to the highest level. 

What was your first experience of opera. 

 My dad actually introduced me to opera. He has a great love for the classics; Tosca, La Traviata, La Bohème etc. I have a very vivid memory of him taking me to see Madam Butterfly at The Cork Opera House and I was enthralled. Prior to this I believed opera singers were simply born with those incredible voices but as soon as I found out that it was possible to train your voice to sing like that I was on a mission! 

 Is Gilda your first  Verdi role?  Looking at your biography, you seem to have sung  lots of contemporary  opera. ! Yes that is true although my first professional engagement after the opera course at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama was a romantic opera; Der Vampyr by Marschner with The Everyman and The Cork Operatic Society. Then in December I sang with Wide Open Opera in their new commission The Oldest Woman in Limerick by Brian Irvine and John McllDuff. Before that I sang the role of Lucia in Irish Youth Opera’s inaugural production of The Rape of Lucretia  conducted by Stephen Barlow and directed by Michael Barker Caven. I'm looking forward to returning to some of the theatres; The Limetree Theatre in Limerick, An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk, The O’ Reilly Theatre in Dublin and Wexford Opera House on the Rigoletto tour. Gilda is my first full Verdi role although I've done some Verdi scenes and arias before. Gilda is one of those bucket list roles and I'm really looking forward to singing it with Opera Theatre Company alongside this exciting cast.  

Irish Examiner Review The Rape of Lucretia  http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/artsvibe/opera-review-the-rape-of-lucretia-at-the-wexford-opera-house-285567.html

Verdi Nights at Bavarian State Opera

Thanks for watching #Turandot! Our next streamings will be THE #NUTCRACKER on Dec 13 and Verdi's #RIGOLETTO on Dec 30: staatsoper.de/tv
— BayerischeStaatsoper (@bay_staatsoper) November 25, 2012

Rigoletto Chorus with onstage brass band 

Vassallo front Dean Power right

The weather in  Munich was unseasonably mild and sunny  where I enjoyed a Verdi splurge at the State Opera House at two quite different productions in  the composer's 200th anniversary year . The cameras  were in place on Sunday night for the free live transmission of the performance of Rigoletto via the world wide web, a very welcome development. Nothing though can beat the live experience and although the house was sold out for weeks for this much anticipated new production,  I went along 'on spec' to see could I find a seat on the night. There was no returns queue but about an hour and a quarter before curtain up, about a dozen or so punters appeared in the gloaming and hovered on the front steps near the Maximillian Strasse end, doing a little circle  dance around each other to see who was buying and selling, the more seasoned punters  holding up signs declaring 'suche karte'. When at  last one of the huge doors ( the second door in  for future reference)  opened to admit opera goers, I made a bee line for the Abendkasse and soon after, I was on my way to a seat underneath the ceiling with a birds eye view of the fabulous retractable chandelier.

Post Show Analysis

The singing  was superb. Baritone  Franco Vassallo imbued the title role with great pathos. Star tenor Joseph Calleja lived up to expectations and soprano Patricia Petibon  glided  angelically around the upper register. Clarecastle tenor,  Dean Power  had a notable stage  presence  in the role of courtier Borsa Matteo.  Even at a distance, a sense of verve and dynamism emanated from the lively dancing baton of musical director, the ubiquitous Marco Amiliato .  

While the singing did not disappoint, the production lacked a certain theatricality.  The huge 100+  male cast and chorus in cream linen mounted on a tiered steps looked like a photo shoot  for  an M&S summer suit collection. Nor did the Duke look very menacing dressed more  for an autumnal day of gardening  than a spot of philandering in cosy beige cardigan and matching track suit bottoms. One can't help wondering did the Maltese tenor raise an eyebrow when he was handed a flowery dressing gown for his tryst with blue jean clad Gilda. (You knew the Duke had had his wicked way when Gilda appeared in the next scene in the same robe).  An antique wheelchair was assassin  Sparafucile's (Dimitry Ivashchenko) prop to convey his victims to the the next world. Sit in for a spin and you were doomed. Nothing in the lighting or staging  made you shiver at  the sinister  elements of the plot. A gigantic prancing horse made a brief appearance and looked impressive but it's relevance  was lost on me 

The opera house has such  splendid glittering  halls for promenading about  that  I was almost  sorry there was only one interval each evening, There was great style, lots of family groups and quite a few drindel dresses and the dress code was relatively formal. On our way out I noticed a gathering of  patrons  for a Q&A  with a representative of the team.  I  would love to be able  report the nuance of the debate but even without a grasp of German, one could guess by the tone and body language that these were somewhat disgruntled patrons. My source, a seasoned punter whom I met  on the steps earlier. told  me that the general tenor of the discussion was that although very musical, it had been a concert performance and not  quite living up to the hype and expectation of a generous six week rehearsal schedule. 

Aida was altogether a more theatrical affair although a similarly nuetral  palette of black, cream and white prevailed with  a smattering of gold for royalty.  The on stage trumpets looked and sounded splendid Sandra Radvonosky as Aida was impressive and I liked the Finnish bass, Mika Kares as Ramfis.  Robert Dean Smith as Radames sounded grand but didn't quite have the look of a battle honed warrior despite the costume. The battle scene was brief and  a little perfunctory and the choreography of the dance elements was in a  modern dance  style that jarred a little with a traditional look and feel to the production

Look at those shoes!

Programme Cover
Aida 

 While top price stalls tickets are over €100, I purchased a standing room  ticket online for  €11.50 which is incredible value by any reckoning. But addicted now to the  element of chance and the thrill in picking up a last hour ticket on the steps, I sold my ticket and traded up to  the relative comfort of a seat in the second balcony. I  had a fairly restricted view but for the price of little more than a cinema ticket at €14 one couldn't feel too hard done by. What did baffle me were the choice of photos in the background programme notes. Where I expected maybe a montage of great artists or historic figures of the past, instead there were rather grungy photos of bare torsoed young males that looked more like  adverts for a brand of jeans or underwear than images for a premier  opera house production. 

Set Aida Staatsoper 

The dates for the next free live screenings are below.. I will be linking up my laptop to the telly for these dates and if it won't be the same at least I can put my feet up and  switch on the English subtitles







Scene photos from Staatsoper website www.staatsoper.de   Related posts A Night at the Bavarian State Opera 2010

Live Opera Broadcasts to an Armchair near You

Aida Cast

Conductor Paolo Carignani 
staging Christof Nel 
Conceptual consulting Martina Jochem 
stage Jens Kilian 
Costumes Ilse Welter Fox 
Choreographic work Valenti Rocamora i Torà 
light winter Olaf 
Choir Sören Eckhoff 
dramaturgy Olaf A. Schmitt. 

Amneris Anna Smirnova 
Aida Sondra Radvanovsky 
Radames Robert Dean Smith 
Ramfis Mika Kares 
Amonasro Michael Volle 
The King Goran Jurić 

March 9, 2013
Leoš Janáček
Jenůfa

April 20, 2013
Richard Wagner
Der fliegende Holländer

May 11, 2013
Giuseppe Verdi
Macbeth

June 1, 2013
Terence Kohler
Helden

July 2013
Stream from the Munich Opera Festival
To be announced