Minimalist setting lets ‘Rigoletto’ shine
A near-capacity audience at the Opera House on Friday got a chance to see and hear why Verdi’s “Rigoletto” has such a firm grip on the opera-going public. The Spokane Symphony production showed that great opera can be made without budget-busting expenditures on sets and costumes.
Friday’s “Rigoletto” had some splendid soloists in the principal roles and a production team that captured the opera’s shifts of mood and scene with clever use of lighting and fabric and an absolute minimum of props, with opera characters appearing in modern dress.
Baritone Charles Robert Stephens was a powerful force in the title role as the hunchback jester whose pleasure at the suffering of others showed a mind as deformed as his body. And coloratura soprano Lambroula Pappas sang and acted Rigoletto’s innocent daughter Gilda as though the role were written for her.
The Duke is a difficult character to make convincing. If he is just an evil dolt, why does every woman – even an experienced prostitute like Maddalena – fall for him? Lyric tenor Eric Fennell, though his voice was a bit light to fill the huge space of the Spokane Opera House, had clear, well-projected sound that was a pleasure to listen to. Fennell made a good case for viewing the Duke as a perpetual teenager, a self-centered, handsome lug with raging hormones.
Bass-baritone Dean Elzinga met the challenge of playing both the part of Monterone, who invokes a curse on Rigoletto, and that of Sparafucile, the assassin who makes that curse come true. Slightly more power in his voice would have made those parts more threatening, but Elzinga brought a convincing gravity and subtlety to both. Barbara Rearick brought a juicy sensuality to the mezzo-soprano role of Sparafucile’s prostitute-sister and accomplice.
Despite the presence of two of opera’s most famous arias, Gilda’s coloratura showpiece “Caro nome” and the Duke’s breezy “La donna e mobile,” Rigoletto is really an ensemble opera.
Friday’s cast was composed of excellently responsive musicians. Their interplay in singing and acting let the drama unfold in a series of duets, trios and the famous Act III quartet to its crushing conclusion as Rigoletto finds that his hired assassin has murdered Gilda instead of the Duke.
Verdi’s ensemble interplay also includes brilliant and innovative strokes of orchestration, particularly the splashes of woodwind and brass coloration to the string ensemble.
Eckart Preu proved himself as adept at larger forces of voices and instruments in opera as in the symphonic repertoire.
Impressive, too, were the choral parts sung by members of the Spokane Symphony Chorale, led by Lori Wiest, and the comprimario roles well sung by visiting and regional artists.
Opera meets the eye before it meets the ear. Stage director Jeffrey Sichel’s and stage and lighting designer Andrew Hill’s minimalist production, staging and lighting allowed Friday’s audience the welcome chance to pay attention to just who these singing characters are and what they are doing to each other and themselves.