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Women are Liars... The capriciousness of female affection: a truism or an elaborate excuse from a man desperate to justify his philandering? La Donna Imobile (Women are liars) are some of opera's most famous lines, sung by opera's most notorious womaniser in Verdi's classic, Rigoletto.
It's a familiar scenario: A handsome, rich and charming man woos as many women as he can, conquering their resistance with his pledges of undying love, then cruelly dismissing them as fickle. Trapped in his web of power are not only the women he deceives, but also the men who work for him, one of whom has a beautiful daughter… And once the beautiful innocent and evil philanderer meet, tragedy is guaranteed. Opera Queensland presents OzOpera's brave and classy retelling of this operatic masterpiece at Brisbane's Conservatorium theatre at Southbank between 19 July and 8 August. Composed originally for a 60 person cast, this production has been reduced to an ensemble of 12 accompanied by a barest-bones musical score for a chamber-sized orchestra. Surprisingly it works! Verdi's achingly beautiful music sounds all the more raw in this arrangement, revealing the deep emotion at the heart of this story. The set is equally sparse, at once creating a feeling of intimacy and chilling alienation. Particularly effective is the use of a backing glass wall in the palace scenes, which induces a feeling of suffocating claustrophia. During the second act, Rigoletto is trying to comfort his daughter after her kidnap by the duke's men, and begs to be left alone with her. The courtiers depart but the audience can sense that someone is still watching them menacingly through the glass walls. The lighting, designed by Chris Yates' adds to the mood of impending doom. >>> |
The characterisation by the members of this cast (all 12 members, except for Sparafucile, play alternating roles in this production) was exceptional, as were the voices of Gilda (Rebecca Collins), Rigoletto (Roger Howell), and Sparafucile (Eddie Muliaumaseali'i). This
2001 version of the 1851 classic demonstrates that opera can retain its
power, even on a reduced scale. In this production, however, there is
one fatal flaw: the language. Even though as a matter of personal taste,
I prefer to see opera sung in the language for which it was composed,
altering it to be sung in English usually does not detract from Rigoletto is a multi-layered story. It seems a shame to lose these layers purely because the language cannot be understood. Of course, the idea behind singing an Italian opera in English is to render it more accessible to English-speaking audiences. OzOpera is the touring arm of Opera Australia and actively seeks to attract new, and usually younger audiences to opera. This production of Rigoletto will tour to North Western Queensland and Western Australia, bringing an art form that people from these areas don't usually have the opportunity to experience. This is a wonderful notion; but if the audience can't even follow the basic story, won't opera remain an enigma to new audiences? Linden George Send us your feedback on this article or anything else in The Blurb |
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the beauty of the music or the story. In this case it did. For some reason,
it was almost impossible to understand much of what was being sung. This
detracted a great deal from the experience because I spent most of the
time straining to hear the words. I wonder why subtitles were not used,
as for the Magic Flute, which was also sung in English.