Oper Leipzig – Verdi’s Rigoletto. May 25, 2019.

Opernhaus Saal.  Parkett rechts (Seat R4-P17, 73 euros).

Story.  Will provide.

Conductor – Christoph Gedscheld.  Gilda – Bianca Tognocchi, Giovanna – Dorothee Schlemm-Gal, Maddalena – Kathrin Goring, Herzog – Kyungho Kim, Rigoletto – Devid Cecconi, Graf von Monterone – Jurgen Kurth; Sparafucile – Randall Jakobsh.

 New banner announcing tonight's opera.

 Another evening, another dark opera.  Whether it is coincidence that all the operas we have seen so far this trip, or that’s what Germans do, we are not sure.  For the record, the next opera we will see is at Covent Garden, and it’s another dark one, Andrea Chenier.

Photo taken from last row of hall.  Not a bad seat in the house.

Deep orchestra pit.

Before we get to how dark things get, let’s first say a few good things.

First and foremost, the music was simply ravishing.  Today everything seemed to click: the orchestra produced dramatic music, all the principal singers could sing and act, and I got a new appreciation of Verdi’s music.

Both last night’s and tonight’s operas called for several low voices, and for tonight the principal, Cecconi as Rigoletto, was well-suited and well-prepared for the role.  He was equally strong in the low and the high registers, and expressed credibly the different emotions of his character: disdain, self-doubt, fear, and love of his daughter.  Tognocchi as Gilda did her lines superbly, working emotions from wistful to fearful.  I was surprised to see Kim again, today as Herzog (the Duke).  While his acting skills may not be at the level of his peers, his voice was a match for theirs, singing exquisitely and with abandon.

What I most appreciate about Verdi in this opera is how he made simple melodies memorable.  “Gaultier Malde … Caro nome che il mio cor” has as its main building block a 7-note descending scale, with some embellishment built in, but sung properly conveys such a sense of joy and longing that one could not but hold out hope for the singer.  “La donna e mobile” on the other hand conveys the cavalier attitude of the Duke towards women.  There are some heavy duty songs that transfix the audience.  Verdi also put in some ensemble vocal music with simple harmonies that are extremely pleasing to the ear.

Of the operas I have seen so far in this trip, today’s sets worked the best.  They were simple, but at least they reassured you where things were happening.  For the last scene where a river is called for, there is a grate that presumably would allow a body to be dumped into a sewer.  Since no body gets dumped anyway, it was okay.

While the original concept Verdi had meant no disrespect for women, in today’s “me too” atmosphere the subject has to be treated with care and sensitivity.  Here I think the production failed.  When the curtain was raised, we saw a dead woman lying on a table.  That turned out to be Monterone’s daughter; she was seduced by the Duke, but here she died from the violence of the assault.  At the end of the scene there was a gang rape (everyone was fully dressed) which was again violence towards women.

And then there were other acts of gratuitous violence.  Giovanna, Gilda’s nurse, was bribed in this production to let the courtiers kidnay Gilda.  Which was bad enough, but then she was murdered by one of the kidnappers, completely unnecessary.  Instead of Monterone being taken away to prison, tonight he was stabbed to death, with blood stains clearly visible on his white coat.

On thing that worked, though, was how Gilda was killed by Sparafucile.  I never understood why Sparafucile would simply kill the first person that came along instead of meeting his customer’s actual demand.  I thought there was an assassin’s code.  Here one could interpret the actions as Gilda pretending to be a man approaching Maddalena and thus mistaken for the Duke.

Curtain Call.  Second from left: Monterone, Sparafucile, the Duke, Conductor Gedsheld, Rigoletto, Gilda, Maddelena.  The other four are probably courtiers.  Not sure why Giovanna didn't shoe.

While the Duke isn’t the title role, it had a lot of strenuous singing.  I was surprised that Kim did this tonight after the substantial role of Ismaele yesterday.  I noticed other names that appear in the same program too.  Kim did so well that I wouldn’t be surprised if he is Alfredo in La Traviata tomorrow (he is not).

Since we knew that there would be no English surtitles, we read up on the synopsis before the show.  It helped very much.  The story was a bit convoluted to write down (as I attempt above), the action is pretty straightforward.  It was good to be able to match the words and action with what I thought was happening.

We had something light at the train station (Leipzig Hbf) before the performance, and after we got back to the hotel ate what we bought earlier from Backwerk.