LYRIC BRINGS FRESH VOICES TO RIGOLETTO
Verdi’s sixteenth opera, Rigoletto has been much performed in its nearly two-hundred year history, including a dozen productions at Lyric Opera. Although the current production uses traditionally-styled sets and costumes from nineteen years ago, it boasts a fresh roster of outstanding musical and directorial talent, including some long-awaited debuts. Ideal in scale for a season opener, Rigoletto lasts a reasonably full two and a half hours, including one intermission.
As with many Verdi operas, Rigoletto’s melodramatic story has not aged as well as its varied and colorful score. Unfortunately, the plot is burdened by a woman martyring herself for love of a philandering abductor. Granted, the abductor turns out to be a charming duke and not the penniless student she thought she was in love with. Director Mary Birnbaum tries to emphasize that Gilda is not merely a passive victim, but has agency, too. While this helps partially right the balance, the chief problem is the lack of humor. This production takes itself too seriously.
Based on Victor Hugo’s 1832 play Le roi s’amuse, Rigoletto features a complex plot and cast of finely-drawn, multi-layered characters set in 16th-century Mantua. A major theme is the power of words to curse, to wound, and to woo. At its center is the eponymous widower, who is overly protective of his daughter Gilda. Rigoletto refuses to let her out of the house or to be drawn out on the subject of her mother. As the court jester, he has created many enemies with his sharp-tongued and insulting jokes masquerading as wit and whimsy. Mistaking his daughter for his mistress, Rigoletto’s antagonists abduct her. She then falls into the hands of the eminently seductive duke. Rigoletto then hires the assassin Sparafucile to kill the duke, but not before he has revealed to Gilda the duke’s perfidy. Rather than let her promiscuous lover die, Gilda sacrifices herself in his place.
Russian baritone Igor Golovatenko plays the Rigoletto with unflagging pathos and vigor. Despite his character’s vulnerability and limp, he never seems cowed. As with his previous performance as Rodrigue in Verdi’s Don Carlos at Lyric, Golovatenko’s singing is tenor-like in its dexterity, sonority, and range. Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan makes her Lyric debut as Gilda. Gifted with an exceptionally pretty voice, Galoyan provides an astoundingly tender and original interpretation of the beloved aria “Caro nome.” Moreover, her voice blends beautifully with both Golovatenko’s baritone and Lyric debut Javier Camarena’s tenor in their many duets and ensemble pieces. As the Duke of Mantua, Camarena is one of those rare performers who make operatic singing seem entirely effortless and natural.
While this reviewer prefers Lyric’s previous production of Rigoletto from 2017, the current production offers a good mix of traditional design and fresh voices. It is worth seeing for the three leads alone–yet these are only a small portion of this diverse and entertaining cast. As melodrama, however, Rigoletto misses the mark. Next up is Beethoven’s Fidelio, beginning September 26.
photos by Andrew Cioffi/Lyric Opera of Chicago
Rigoletto
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive
ends on October 6, 2024
for tickets, call 312.827.5600 or visit Lyric Opera
for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago
