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by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Christopher Alden

Canadian Opera Company, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto

January 20 & 27, February 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 17, 21 & 23, 2018

Maddalena: “Lasciatemi, stordito!”

The Canadian Opera Company’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto confronts the audience with an unpleasant paradox that has become all too familiar – the music and singing are beautiful but the production is a mess.  When the Canadian Opera Company premiered its “new” production of Verdi’s Rigoletto by Christopher Alden in 2011, some astute observers realized that all Alden had done was re-create the same production he did for the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2000.  It was a production so controversial that the CLO refused to revive it.  Do we thank Alden for giving us a production rejected by Chicago?  Now the COC has revived it and its flaws are even more obvious the second time round.  Luckily, as for the music, the performances of the cast and COC Orchestra are spectacular and even more impressive than they were in 2011.

Alden has updated the setting from the 16th to the 19th century and situated all the action inside designer Michael Levine’s gorgeous, extraordinarily detailed set of a wood-panelled gentlemen’s club extending the entire width and depth of the stage with a deeply coffered ceiling.  On a practical level Alden’s concept has two major drawbacks.  First, since all the men are dressed alike in gentlemen’s formal wear, many with sashes, it is difficult to tell who’s who, including the Duke.  Only Rigoletto is given a distinguishing accessory, a conical dunce cap that he carries more than wears. Second, placing Rigoletto’s dwelling as well as the assassin Sparafucile’s inside the gentlemen’s club makes it extremely hard to know who is exactly where when and what they are supposed to overhear or not.  Since disguise and mistaken identity are crucial in Act 3, even patrons who know

the opera well can be forgiven for being confused.  Much of the buzz at intermission concerned deciphering who was who. 

On an interpretive level Alden’s concept has a more disturbing flaw.  Alden has altered elements of his direction since the 2011 production, but he has signally missed the chance to make his men’s club setting relevant to the current discussion about women abused by men in positions of power, a topic that already lies at the foundation of the opera’s plot.  It’s good that Alden has removed the Duke’s distracting masturbation during “Possente amor mi chiama,” but now he has added to the first half of Act 3 a slow-motion orgy by the chorus to show that both the men and women of the court are equally depraved. 

The point of the opera is that men, particularly men in power like the Duke, prey on women.  The orgy scene, obviously not in the original, makes the Duke’s behaviour merely a symptom of upper class society in general.  Worse, Alden is eager to show women complicit in other women’s downfall by having Giovanna, Gilda’s nurse in the original, serve both Rigoletto and the Duke and, seduced by the Duke’s attentions, even has her procure Gilda for the Duke.             

Besides setting all the action inside a men’s club, Alden’s concept also presents what we see as Rigoletto’s recollection of the horrors he has lived through.  This Alden signals by having Rigoletto asleep in a chair in front of the curtain during the overture and beginning of the Act 2.  Yet, the notion of the action as occurring in Rigoletto’s mind still doesn’t explain the series of bizarre excesses in which Alden indulges.  What does it mean that Gilda spends all her free time staring at a portrait of her mother?  Why is the portrait slashed in Act 2 and why does the Duke complete its destruction?  Is it some unnecessary symbol of Gilda’s innocence?  Why does Alden have the male courtiers scatter rose petals around Gilda and the Duke disguised as a student when they sing their love duet “Addio! speranza ed anima”?  If it is to add a heavy dose of irony to the scene, it is inappropriate since Gilda’s love for the Duke is true and even the Duke’s love, at that moment, may be genuine.  In the original libretto Monterone, who curses the Duke and Rigoletto, is taken off to a dungeon, but Alden decides that in this all-purpose clubroom, the courtier’s should hang the old man from a beam in the ceiling and then leave him dangling there for an entire act.   

Despite the failings of the production, the cast is simply phenomenal.  In the title role Roland Wood displays a magnificently plush baritone capable of an infinite variety of colours.  His “Deh, non parlare al misero” brings out the humility of a man who thought he could never be loved while his account of “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata” is absolutely chilling, filled with a cruel irony directed not only at

the courtiers but at himself.  Even when a silent brooding observer, Wood exudes more intensity than anyone else on stage.

Gilda is sung by Anna Christy, whose Lucia we praised in 2013.  Her soprano has the unusual ability to convey both fragility and strength at once, her purity of tone ideal for such an innocent as Gilda.  She presents “Caro nome” not as a showpiece but as the natural expression of her character with its coloratura flourishes beautifully conceived as sighs of delight.   

The night I attended the audience was informed before Act 2 that the Duke, Stephen Costello was ill but would continue to sing.  All that had been noticeable in Act 1 was that his fine Italianate tenor did not match the volume of the rest of the principals.  Nevertheless, Costello was replaced for Act 3 by his alternate Joshua Guerrero*, who has such a similar voice in its cultured tone and quality that most audience members likely did not notice the unannounced substitution.  What they must have noticed was how the Duke seemed much more robust than before with his “La donna è mobile” tossed off with panache and its final high B showily held a few seconds longer than usual.     

There are no weak links among the comprimario roles.  Goderdzi Janelidze wields a bass-baritone that is spacious as well as dark and well suited to expressions of irony.  Carolyn Sproule shows off a lush mezzo-soprano as the sensuous and cunning Maddalena.  And Robert Pomakov makes a forceful impression as the wronged Monterone.  Megan Latham’s contralto was a strong as ever as Alden’s enigmatic Giovanna.       

Conductor Stephen Lord draws particularly vital playing from the COC Orchestra, with especially fine contributions from the winds and brass, that made the score sound newly polished with its myriad colours revealed as brighter and clearer than before.  In all, this is one of the finest performances of the roles of Rigoletto and Gilda this reviewer has seen, which makes it all the more a pity they should be trapped in so confusing and aggravating a production.

*Joshua Guerrero sings the Duke February 11, 17 and 23.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This is a version of a review that will appear later this year in Opera News.

Photos: (from top) Stephen Costello as the Duke (on sofa), Carolyn Sproule as Maddalena (on sofa), Neil Criaghead as Count Ceprano and Roland Wood in dunce cap as Rigoletto; Carolyn Sproule as Maddalena and Stephen Costello as the Duke; Roland Wood as Rigoletto and Anna Christy as Gilda. ©2018 Michael Cooper.

For tickets, visit www.coc.ca.