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Verdi’s Rigoletto: vivid acting, natural singing in Opera Hong Kong production that erred on the dark side

South China Morning Post

發布於 2019年10月15日09:10 • Natasha Rogai
  • A work of startling relevance in the MeToo era, Rigoletto requires the right balance between the forces of light and darkness, one not quite achieved here
  • Roberto Frontali sang with power and control in title role, Audrey Luna made Gilda convincingly innocent, and young tenor Pavel Petrov is a star in the making
A scene from Opera Hong Kong's production of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. Photo: Opera Hong Kong
A scene from Opera Hong Kong's production of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. Photo: Opera Hong Kong

For an opera that had its premiere in 1851, Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto has a startling relevancy in the era of #MeToo, and Opera Hong Kong's new production presents a powerful portrait of a world where men abuse women as a matter of routine and the wicked go unpunished.

The hunchback Rigoletto is jester to the Duke of Mantua, whose favourite pastime is seducing women (including the wives and daughters of his courtiers) whom he then discards " his passion is the hunt, and once the prey has been caught, he loses interest.

When the aged Count Monterone confronts the Duke over his rape of Monterone's daughter, Rigoletto mocks him to please his master but is filled with fear when the old man puts a curse on him. The punishment fits the crime when Rigoletto's own beloved daughter, Gilda, becomes the Duke's victim.

Desperate to avenge his daughter's dishonour, Rigoletto hires hitman Sparafucile to kill the Duke but Gilda, still in love with the man who cheated and betrayed her, sacrifices herself and dies in his place.

American soprano Audrey Luna as Gilda, baritone Roberto Frontali in title role as Rigoletto (left), and Pavel Petrov as the Duke of Mantua (right) in Opera Hong Kong's production of Rigoletto. Photo: Opera Hong Kong
American soprano Audrey Luna as Gilda, baritone Roberto Frontali in title role as Rigoletto (left), and Pavel Petrov as the Duke of Mantua (right) in Opera Hong Kong's production of Rigoletto. Photo: Opera Hong Kong

Although it's based on a play by one of literature's great moralists, Victor Hugo, it's hard to call this relentlessly dark work a morality tale. The good (Gilda, Monterone) are destroyed while the bad (the lecherous Duke and his venal courtiers, Sparafucile and his sister Maddalena, who has sex with men so her brother can kill them) survive unscathed and flourish.

From the moment the curtain goes up on an all-out orgy in the ducal palace, director Pier Francesco Maestrini gives a brutally no-holds-barred picture of the amorality, cruelty and licentiousness of the world Rigoletto inhabits and which the Duke embodies.

Baritone Roberto Frontali in the title role as Rigoletto (left), and American soprano Audrey Luna as Gilda (middle). Photo: Opera Hong Kong
Baritone Roberto Frontali in the title role as Rigoletto (left), and American soprano Audrey Luna as Gilda (middle). Photo: Opera Hong Kong

The concept works well, although it accentuates the problem of reconciling a score that contains some of Verdi's loveliest and most lyrical music with the ugliness of the subject matter. La donna E mobile is one of the composer's most irresistible melodies, yet the words express the Duke's contempt for women, whom he regards as fickle, false and foolish.

While the production (originally staged at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Italy) as a whole is excellent, Maestrini and his visual and lighting designers " Juna Guillermo Nova and Pascal Merat respectively " have interpreted the darkness of the work rather too literally.

At times the lighting is so dim that the characters' facial expressions are obscured and a gauze at the front of the stage, on which video images are projected from time to time, is left in place throughout, creating a barrier between artists and audience that reduces the work's emotional impact and immediacy.

A scene from Opera Hong Kong's production of Rigoletto. Photo: Opera Hong Kong
A scene from Opera Hong Kong's production of Rigoletto. Photo: Opera Hong Kong

Fortunately the cast was strong enough to overcome this obstacle, with performances in the three principal roles distinguished by vivid, natural acting as well as superb singing.

In the title role, veteran baritone Roberto Frontali sang with power and control in an interpretation that conveyed the complexity of Rigoletto's character and the intensity of his emotions.

Belarusian tenor Pavel Petrov's bright, ringing tone and elegant runs were ideally suited to the music, and he made the Duke sexy enough to explain Gilda's infatuation " still in his 20s, Petrov is clearly a star in the making.

American soprano Audrey Luna as Gilda (left) and baritone Roberto Frontali in the title role. Luna made her character's final sacrifice believable and produced some gorgeous singing. Photo: Opera Hong Kong
American soprano Audrey Luna as Gilda (left) and baritone Roberto Frontali in the title role. Luna made her character's final sacrifice believable and produced some gorgeous singing. Photo: Opera Hong Kong

American soprano Audrey Luna brought convincing youth and innocence to Gilda, even succeeding in making her final sacrifice believable (no mean feat) and produced some gorgeous singing, including a dazzling coloratura display at the end of Caro nome che il mio cor, which brought the house down.

There was strong support from the rest of the cast, including creditable performances from local singers Carol Lin as Maddalena and Sammy Chien as Marullo, and impressive work by the Opera Hong Kong Chorus.

Conductor Paolo Olmi drew a suitably full-bodied account of the score from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, although the pacing at times seemed erratic.

Rigoletto, Opera Hong Kong, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. Reviewed: October 13, 2019

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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