Verdi - Rigoletto / Luciano Pavarotti, Ingvar Wixell, Edita Gruberova, Victoria Vergara, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Riccardo Chailly

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's movie of Rigoletto was my first exposure to this wonderful opera...watching it again, years later, from the perspective of a seasoned Rigoletto(and Verdi) enthusiast, it still has the power to enchant, to revolt, to surprise, to overpower, to inform and to provoke thought on the strength of its dark interpretation, its psychological approach.Let's not mince words here. The film is a baroque, profane and utterly garish spectacle. Some may be turned off by this. I find it appropriate considering the subject matter of the opera. For instance, Verdi might not have written the opening scene as an orgy per se, due to the Italian censors, but it is easy enough to interpret it that way, and Ponnelle pulls out all the stops. More power to him. This Salo-slash-Caligula-like feast is replete with disturbing imagery: rats crawling over dinner plates; countesses celebrated as objects of beauty who actually look like ashen spectres; half-dressed musclemen utilized as submissive display pieces; pretty maidens offered up as sacrifice to the Duke of Mantua's gluttonous appetites. Ugly? Perhaps. But perfectly in step with the opera's theme of destructive depravity. Likewise, having Sparafucile made up like a grotesque caveman adds to the concept that the world Rigoletto inhabits is surreal, nightmarish, the only island of hope in this inferno rests in the small upper chamber where his daughter Gilda resides. When even that oasis is violated, it becomes grimly apparent that the hunchback's whole world has fallen apart.In his other opera films, Ponnelle likes to emphasize parallels among characters, and Rigoletto is no exception. First, we see a moment of realization on the face of Rigoletto when Monterone is issuing his curse over his violated daughter, wherein the court jester seems to recognize that if the same thing were to happen to his own daughter he would be just as vindictive. This closeup is a revelation of humanity, but also of culpability for the multihued protagonist. Later, when Rigoletto first meets Sparafucile, they engage in a physical exchange that is choreographed to resemble a waltz, showcasing the similarities between the two characters, similarities discerned by Rigoletto himself in his ensuing monologue. Other incisive visual moments: the use of flashbacks, such as Rigoletto recalling Gilda at church, or the face of the angry count issuing his curse. In fact, the whole film is portrayed as a flashback, since it opens with Rigoletto mourning over his daughter's corpse. The medium of film affords Ponnelle the creative freedom to include these psychological touches in ways a staged production never could, and he does so successfully. For that reason alone, this film is recommended.But let's not forget the other treasures to be savored here, primarily the performers. Pavarotti is in his vocal prime, that is all that needs to be said, I won't waste time glorifying a voice that needs no introduction. The real surprise here is his acting. He manages to turn his usually ruddy, cherubic countenance into something sinister and cannibalistic, and it's a side of the performer we rarely see onstage. The magnificent coloratura soprano Edita Gruberova is in peak form as Gilda, bringing a heightened intensity to the role but never at the expense of vocal beauty. Neither she nor Pavarotti look the part exactly, but they make up for it through their precise vocalism and also through their ability to inhabit the bodies of their characters...I would have said inhabit their souls, but it is left in doubt whether the the duke possesses such a thing. I was unfamiliar with the baritone Ingvar Wixell, but his performance as Rigoletto is astonishing, pathetic, endearing, off-putting, fabulously sung, utilizing a voice that is both smooth and rich. I have mixed feelings about Riccardo Chailly's interpretation of the score. He plays up the bombast, the chilling loudness of certain moments, perhaps too much, although the quieter moments are certainly not lacking in nuance. Still, I prefer James Levine's interpretation on the Met DVD release. I will say this for Chailly, he gives us an uncut version of the score. I'm not a big fan of the duke's oft-excised act two cabaletta, I think it is the weakest, most hackneyed moment of this otherwise inventive score, but I would rather have it than not, and Chailly actually presents us with both verses, a rare enough event(even the Levine version is cut down to one verse).Some viewers might find Ponnelle's ghastly, decadent vision a bit over-the-top, but isn't opera in general over-the-top, particularly Italian opera from this era? Rigoletto's story is a wall-to-wall nightmare(of his own making; you lie down with dogs, dear Rigoletto...), and it is perfectly appropriate to present it as such.

Real opera lovers are a wee tad finicky, as the one- and two-star reviews of this DVD demonstrate. Real opera lovers seem to have a Platonic Ideal of the opera in their cavernous consciousnesses, a template of what Joe Verdi intended, from which any deviation is risky. Real opera lovers don't take well to 'film' productions of their idolized operas. Even if they are now ultra-pecunious enough to sit in the orchestra, they recall their youthful evenings in 'paradise' (the highest balcony) as the best of their lives, and they need that distant, almost inaudible timbre in the tenor's voice to sustain their enthusiasm. Real opera lovers KNOW whose performance, attested only by repute or perhaps by a tinny recording, was sans pareil for all time.Me? I'm just a guy who goes to the opera for the fun of it, and I'm ready to be pleased. I'm also a musician by trade, which leads me to cut quite a lot of slack for the professional sisters and brothers, and inclines me to care more about the sounds I hear, the music itself, than about the staging or acting. Yes yes, I know opera as an art aspires to totality, to the sublime unison of drama and music. But realistically, friends, the unison is most often imbalanced: wonderful music, dopey libretto. Can you earnestly argue otherwise? Particularly about the operas of Giuseppe Verdi?Case in point: Rigoletto! The script is a squalid and improbable melodrama. Without music, it would be snored off the stage. Rigoletto is a horrid little beast, deformed as much in mind as in body, and he's more convincingly gullible than devious. The Duke of Mantua is an odious tyrant. Everyone in the cast is besotted with evil except Gilda, Rigoletto's cloistered daughter, whose purity of being must be taken on faith. The story is grotesque, the characters are grotesque... but the music! ah, the music is celestial! Even the vile assassin is given celestial music to sing. But does any real opera lover ever complain about 'cognitive dissonance'?I can almost promise you, dear reader, that even if you think you've never seen or heard Rigoletto in your life, you will snap to attention at the Duke's first major aria, and say to yourself "why, I know that music! So this is where it comes from!" And you'll have such epiphanies several more times before the final curtain. It's the Duke's voice you'll remember as you leave the theater, or turn off the DVD player. It's the joyous lilt of the debauched Duke's arias that you'll find yourself singing in the shower. The most essential item in a production of Rigoletto is that the Duke's role be sung superbly, and recorded equally well. Forget any other quibbles: Luciano Pavarotti sang this music, as people said about Caruso, like a God. If you've ever wondered why Pavarotti was venerated, this DVD will answer your doubts. You can decide for yourself whether he could also 'act'. It's an insignificant question.Ingvar Wixell is almost ludicrously ugly in his make-up as the hunch-backed Rigoletto, and his posturing verges on silliness, but once again, IT'S The Music, Stupid! Wixell's tormented, interiorized vocal art makes emotional sense out of Verdi's twisted musical musings. If the visuals annoy you, opera lovers, just shade your eyes and watch the subtitles.Coloratura soprano Edita Gruberova soars. That's her job. She doesn't look childish enough for the role, but she conveys her nun-like innocence in her voice, and she sings in tune! Not a minor accomplishment for a Verdi specialist! What's more, she has the musical wisdom to "comp" to Pavarotti in their duets, not to attempt to upstage him. Nobody could upstage Pavarotti in this music.Okay. I'm almost finished.Verdi outdid himself in Rigoletto. The music is iconic. Unforgettable. Rigoletto is one warhorse that deserves to be ridden as long as opera houses stand and opera lovers are willing to spend an Afghani's life wages for a single evening in a box seat.

Tolle CD

Muy buena la ópera y el sonido muy bueno también.

Quel bonheur de voir une magnifique mise en scène à la fois classique et éblouissante ! Cela tranche par rapport à la plupart des mises en scènes d'opéras que l'on voit aujourd'hui, ridiculement modernistes, avec des décors laids et des costumes ridicules. Et évidemment - mais cela va sans dire - quelles voix splendides !!

Vedere la vita di corte

Pavarotti, “el rey de los do agudos”