The challenge with RIGOLETTO is: how do you make the audience care about the characters, who are, basically, all horrible people in one way or another? There's no one for the audience to identify with - everyone is either permanently-adolescent, disgustingly hedonist and vapid, emotionally crippled, mercenary without limits, or terminally naive. Even Rig's love for his daughter, which is supposed to redeem him somehow, turns out only to be self-love (otherwise he would have spared the Duke as Gilda begs him to do). And Gilda is a pathetic air-head who loves the idea of being in love more than she loves the Duke or her father or anyone else.
But good performances of RIGOLETTO are always stirring and sympathetic, even so. I've seen more productions than I can keep track of, and performed in a few as well, and I still don't understand what makes this piece so powerful. I think it varies from one production to another.
It's easy to see why this particular production works so well: the directing is extraordinarily clever and sensitive, and the singers are all first-rate, especially the baritone Paolo Gavanelli. He seems to have everything - brains, looks, sound, and acting skill. The result is terrifying, and gorgeous.
But good performances of RIGOLETTO are always stirring and sympathetic, even so. I've seen more productions than I can keep track of, and performed in a few as well, and I still don't understand what makes this piece so powerful. I think it varies from one production to another.
It's easy to see why this particular production works so well: the directing is extraordinarily clever and sensitive, and the singers are all first-rate, especially the baritone Paolo Gavanelli. He seems to have everything - brains, looks, sound, and acting skill. The result is terrifying, and gorgeous.