Welcome to Exhibit A of why it is of utmost importance for parents to have The Talk with their children.
Today was the simulcast of Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece, Rigoletto. Director Michael Meyers decided to update the opera from 16th Century Mantua Italy, to 1960's Las Vegas, which fits right in with the themes of corruption, decay, seduction, and loss of innocence. The Duke was modeled on Frank Sinatra, and his entourage was based off of the Rat Pack. Don Rickles was the model for Rigoletto. At that time, Las Vegas was becoming more and more affiliated with the mob. It was also getting a lot of money from the Arab Sheiks (in particular, the Saudis) who were coming to the casinos. Sparafucile the assassin is a mobster while his sister, Maddalena, is appropriately cast as a pole dancer. Count Monterone, the man who curses Rigoletto, is recast as a sheik.
Serbian baritone Zeljko Lucic* sang the title role of the deformed and embittered jester/comedian with a cruel sense of humor. German soprano Diana Damrau is Gilda, Rigoletto's lovely but locked-away daughter. Polish tenor Piotr Beczala sang the role of the lascivious Duke of Mantua (more on him in just a little bit).
The plot of Rigoletto is as follows: Rigoletto is the court jester to the notorious Duke of Mantua, who loves nothing better than to seduce beautiful women. To keep his employer entertained, Rigoletto makes cruel jokes about the various men who wives, daughters, etc., have been seduced by the Duke. But Rigoletto himself has a beautiful teenage daughter named Gilda. He is so afraid for her safety that he has not told her anything about her family, let alone having anything resembling The Talk. She cannot go anywhere outside the house except to church. But the girl can't be hidden forever, and the Duke eventually does find and seduce Gilda. And it's all down hill from there.
The first act of this production took place in a casino owned by the Duke, who is a Vegas entertainer. The place is full of neon lights, roulette tables, slot machines, and dancing girls dressed in sexy costumes with peacock feathers serving drinks and making the moves on the men. There is an elevator on either side that various characters use throughout the first and second acts. The Duke sings about his way with women and afterwards attempts to seduce the Countess Ceprano, the wife of the Count Ceprano. Rigoletto, the comedian, makes fun of Ceprano for it. Marullo, one of the gang, tells the others that Rigoletto has a mistress.
Rigoletto is hated by the various yes-men and hangers-on for his deformity and barbed tongue, and they plan to bring him down. Then Monterone, a sheik, enters. He is furious with the Duke for seducing his daughter. When Rigoletto mocks him for it, Monterone curses both the him and the Duke. While the latter isn't too put off, Rigoletto is shaken. Most people would that such a scene would be accompanied by an ominous crashing chord. Not so here. Verdi used trembling strings to indicate the tension created by it.
At a bar, Rigoletto encounters a criminal, Sparafucile by name, who offers him his services. The way he works, is that his sexy sister lures their victims into the inn, and then they strike. Rigoletto turnes him down, but says that he'll come when he needs the help. Sparafucile in this production, wrote his name down on what looked like a business card and gave it to Rigoletto in the form of a pack of matches. Rigoletto then reflects on the similarities between him and the criminal. He despises the yes-men and hangers-on for their hatred of him. The music is vary dark and very tense. Then Verdi introduces a solo flute and Rigoletto says "But at home I am a different man." And we see this when he enters the house and his teenage daughter Gilda comes running to him. They have a very close relationship. Gilda is about fifteen-years-old, and at her age is starting to ask questions about herself, in particular, her family. Her mother died young and so Gilda want to know more about her. All Rigoletto says is that woman took pity on him. Rigoletto is trying too hard to keep Gilda safe from the dangers and temptations of the city where they live. Gilda cannot leave the house except to go to church. But Rigoletto stills heaps questions on both her and her nurse, Giovanna. After he leaves, Gilda tells Giovanna that she left out the fact that she met a handsome young man at church, who unbeknownst to her, is really the Duke. He has bribed Giovanna to let him pass and she leaves the room. The Duke surprises Gilda and declares his love for her. Gilda, who has been isolated, starved for affection, and as result is extremely naive, falls for him almost immediately. She asks the Duke his name, and he tells her that he Guatier Malde, a poor student. Meanwhile, someone is approaching forcing the Duke to leave. Alone, she reflects on his name and swears that she will love him to the last. Meanwhile, the yes-men and hangers-on have tracked down the house and plot to abduct Gilda, whom they think is Rigoletto's mistress. When Rigoletto appears, Marullo and the others trick him into helping them with their scheme. Then when he finds out that he's been tricked, he cries out "The Curse!". Earlier in the act, some men brought in a sarcophagus and out stepped a woman scantily clad as an ancient Egyptian girl. Well, they brought it back in this part of the act as the means of transporting a bound and gagged Gilda from her house. Rigoletto finds Gilda gone and Giovanna knocked out.
Act 2 took place in the Dukes Penthouse apartment. In this production some of the yes-men and hangers-on are lying down on the floor sleeping off drinks apprently (there is eveidence of a party in the room). In a peculiar combination of both frustration over his incomplete conquest and possible genuine feeling for Gilda, the Duke laments over the girl's disappearance from her house. It reminded me of the line from Act 3 from Shakespeare's play Macbeth (which Verdi also made into an opera), where Macbeth says "I am in blood stepped so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er." The Duke must be having a similar moment here. He has let himself get caught in the sin of love-'em-then-leave-'em. He actually says that Gilda could the one woman who could possibly make him a faithful man (which is saying something because a servant comes in later to say that the Duke's wife wants to see him). His apartment is simply furnished with armchairs, end tables, and--a lamp? a statue?--whatever it was, it was in the form of a naked woman with coil around her body. The yes-men and hangers-on come back and tell the Duke that they have brought the woman to him and he is ecstatic. He goes into another room to find Gilda. Meanwhile, Rigoletto has come looking for his daughter. The men assembled mock him, but he pretends to be aloof and simply singing "la-ra, la-ra". When he realizes that Gilda is in the adjoining room with the Duke, the yes-men and hangers-on mock him. Then Rigoletto reveals that Gilda is really his daughter, not his mistress, and he curses the men. Then Gilda comes out of the other room disheveled and distraught; she has just been raped by the Duke. In this production, she wears a modest blue button-up dress and a cross necklace (she is usually wearing a cross of some variety in most productions). When she comes out of the room, the top buttons of her dress are unfastened, her hair is down, and she's barefoot. She tells her father about her encounter with the Duke from earlier. After seeing Monterone being taken to prison for being a party crasher, Rigoletto swears revenge on the Duke, but Gilda pleads with him to forgive and spare the man she still loves.
The final act takes place at the inn where Sparafucile and his promiscuous sister, Maddalena, have their base of operation. For some stupid reason the folks who made the new production had breif scene involving a half-stripped woman dancing around the pole in the center of the room. It has been a month since Gilda has lost both her innocence and her virginity, but she still hopelessly loves the Duke. Rigoletto decides to show her what the Duke is like in real life. Inside the inn, the Duke sings what is perhaps the catchiest of all Verdi tunes, "La Donna e Mobile" (Woman is Wayward). Of course what kind of man is he to be singing that sort of thing? At the end, in this production, he swung on the stripper pole. He then turns his attentions to Maddalena. Gilda is horrified to see that she has been lied to, and Rigoletto tells her that her tears are useless, and it is done in what is perhaps the most memorable quartet in all of opera. While the Duke works his wiles, Maddalena laughs, Gilda laments, and Rigoletto fumes. At the end, Rigoletto tells Gilda to put on mens clothes and leave. He gives Sparafucile the first half of the money and says that his name is Punishment while the target's name is Crime. he then leaves, promising to give Sparafucile the rest of the money when the deed is done. Meanwhile the seductress herself has been seduced and Maddalena is smitten with the Duke. She pleads with her brother to spare him. Gilda reenters disguised as a man, as her love for the Duke has brought her back. She overhears Sparafucile and Maddalena talking and realizes that her father has agreed to murder the Duke. Maddalena continues to beg for mercy for the Duke and Sparafucile relents: If someone else comes, he will that person instead. Gilda, seeing Maddalena's tears and having nothing else in left for her in the world, decides that she will die in the Duke's place. She enters and is mortally wounded. This production show the intensity of the storm in the music via use of a neon blue lamp representing the storm, reaching its most intense when Gilda enters. Most productions make the inn go black before Gilda is stabbed, but in this one they showed it onstage. Gilda, resolved to die in place of her beloved, made no resistance. Sparafucile places the body in the trunk of a car in this production (the Nevada license plate cleverly showed his name written on it). Most productions just have the body placed in a weighted sack. Rigoletto give the assassin the rest of the money and decides to dispose of what he thinks is the Duke himself, which Sparafucile allows him to do. Rigoletto gloats for a moment, then hears the Duke singing his refrain from earlier. Rigoletto is horrified and when he looks again at the body, he discovers his own daughter; the pit he dug for the Duke ensnared Gilda instead. She revives briefly to confess what happened and declares that she will be in Heaven with her mother. She dies, and Rigoletto cries out "The Curse!", one last time before the curtain descends.
What sold the opera for me was Piotr Beczala in the role of the Duke. He was just so darn sexy the way he portrayed the character. My favorite part was the Act 2 aria where he has one moment in the whole opera where the audience can sympathize with him. He sang that tune as though the Duke really was going to have a change of heart before falling back into his lascivious ways. I don't think he could've sounded or looked so hot.
It was also quite a change from his role last season as the faithful Des Grieux in Massanet's Manon. He went from the heartbroken to the heart breaker. Whether it's the part of me that likes bad boys or not I don't know; all I know is that Beczala sounded good and looked sexy.
Great performance, great update, splendid portrayal of Gilda by Diana Damrau and of Rigoletto by Lucic. This is a must-see.
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*Pronounced: ZYEL-koh LOO-chich
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