Rigoletto a Mantova

Pierre Cavassilas specialises in filming operas live in authentic locations. The technique, as I understand it, involves hidden camera, mikes, earpieces and television monitors so that the performers can sing live while following the beat of a conductor and orchestra hidden away somewhere in the basement. I thought this worked well for the 2000 film of La Traviata but I was less convinced by this new film using authentic locations in Mantua.

I almost begin to understand the reasoning behind some of the bizarre modern-dress versions of Rigoletto that we are used to seeing. Setting the opera in Mantua does tend to make it look like a museum piece. Worse, it is a Disneyfied museum piece since the director chooses to imbue every scene with a golden light.

The USP of this approach is that the singers are really singing. Their lips are synchronised with the sound and we even see them spraying each other with spittle as they sing during a romantic clinch. The singing still strikes me as phony though since it is sotto voce into a microphone making Rigoletto seem more like a musical than an opera. Also the ambiance of the music is often mismatched to the room that it is supposed to be sung in.

The big draw of this production is Placido Domingo having one of his first outings with his new low voice. I have to say he makes a surprisingly ordinary baritone. Yuliya Novikova and Vittorio Grigolo as Gilda and the Duke seem to have small but pleasing voices but it would probably be unfair to judge any of the vocal performances given the circumstances of the production.

I felt strangely detached from this production which is perhaps why I mused on the plot more than I would normally. Cavassilas certainly brings out the brutality and hypocrisy of the Mantuan court. The only character with a modicum of honour is Ruggero Raimondo's Sparafucile who is horrified by his daughter's suggestion that, having accepted money to kill the Duke, he should not go through with the deed.

That is not to say I thought it would be bad, not at all, I just wondered whether Placido Domingo who I love would work as Rigoletto. I adore Verdi's opera, so of course I wanted to see this on location production. And I found it surprisingly good.

I loved the authentic location work, and the clever photography and lighting(if occasionally too bright). The music is unquestionably magnificent, and it is performed and conducted with power, pathos and I think vigour. The story is still foreboding and moving with plenty of atmosphere especially in the scene between Rigoletto and Sparafucile.

The acting and singing are solid throughout. Yuliya Novikova is a sweetly voiced Gilda, and appropriately tender in her duets with Domingo though her acting is stiff at times. Vittorio Grigolo is a cynical and handsome Duke of Mantua. In support, coming off best are Nino Surqualadze as a seductive Maddalena and Gianfranco Montresor as Monterone.

Placido Domingo is wonderful in the title role, maybe not the most ideal Verdian baritone voice, there is a lot of the burnished tenor basic sound, but with poignancy, charisma and malevolence as is always the case with this great singer his acting is extraordinary. I personally would have preferred a darker and more authoritative basso voice for Sparafucile, but while some of its power is not quite there Ruggero Raimondi's voice has security and shape and like Domingo he is a magnetic actor.

The directing is fine, all the crucial scenes are done well though the opening scene is not the most vibrant opening to Rigoletto I've seen. The costumes are also good. All in all, surprisingly good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

How many times have I seen and heard Rigoletto...live performance...high def theatre broadcast...television...set everywhere from historic Mantua to sixties Las Vegas to an eighties playboy's condo. This may be the best ever. The whole work is charged with passion and dynamism. Shooting in Mantua was interesting (especially since I have been there and in the opera house where Zeuben Metha conducts the orchestra.) The camera work and staging were excellent. But it was the MUSIC. Verdi would have been proud of such a powerful presentation of his work. This is an unaccustomed role for Placido Domingo and, as always, he shines. (Good Lord, the man is in his seventies and keeps getting better.) Yuliva Novikova as Gilda is full of demure passion and actually looks like a young girl. Metha brings out all the wondrous and complex emotions and subtleties of Verdi's score (maybe his best ever) It is a wonderful production which I enjoyed immensely even though the subtitles on my copy were in French. With this great performance, they could have been in Sanskrit and I still would have loved it. Now to put the audio on a CD so I can listen to it in the car...