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Fanfare Magazine Archive of CD Reviews: VERDI: Rigoletto (Jesus López-Cobos)
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Issue 34:2 Nov/Dec
2010
Lynn René Bayley
VERDI
ARTHAUS
Carlos Alvarez
Marcelo Álvarez
Gran Teatre del Liceu
O & Ch
Julian Konstantinov
Jesus López-Cobos
Joàn Martín-Royo
Inva Mula
Mercé Obiol
Nino Surguladze
Duke Of Mantua
Gilda
Giovanna
Maddalena
Marullo
Monterone
Rigoletto
Sparafucile
VIDEO
DVD Review by Lynn René Bayley
VERDI Rigoletto • Jesús López-Cobos, cond;
Carlos Álvarez (Rigoletto); Marcélo Álvarez (Duke of
Mantua); Inva Mula (Gilda); Stanislav Shvets
(Monterone); Julian Konstantinov (Sparafucile); Mercé
Obiol (Giovanna); Joán Martin-Royo (Marullo); Nino
Surguladze (Maddalena); Gran Teatre del Liceu O & Ch
• ARTHAUS MUSIK 107 147 (DVD: 130:00) Live:
Barcelona 2004
21/05/16 00:28
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Back in the late 1970s, a nowdefunct cable arts channel telecast a
magnificent production of Rigoletto
combining the best features of
traditional and innovative staging.
The performance featured
Margherita Rinaldi (a name
virtually forgotten today) as the
greatest Gilda I’ve ever heard or
seen, Franco Bonisolli as the Duke,
Rolando Panerai as Rigoletto,
Viorica Cortez as Maddalena, and
Bengt Rundgren as Sparafucile,
conducted with brio if not with
Verdi: Rigoletto
DVD
great genius by Francesco
Arthaus Musik
Molinari-Pradelli. Among the many
wonderful things about that
Rigoletto was the astounding
portrayal of the title character by Panerai. Here was a jester
who not only looked the part of a hunchback but moved like
one, bowed over and scampering across the stage almost like
a spider. Just the sight of him made you uneasy, and his vocal
characterization was as great as his acting.
In this modern production from Barcelona in 2004 (no exact
date given), we have a sparser, starker, more innovative
staging by Graham Vick that hammers home the brutal
aspects of the drama. During the prelude we see Rigoletto
sitting on his false throne, a leather chair, doing nothing in
particular but making us realize that the viewpoint of the
opera is his. During the initial party music, a cyclorama turns
to reveal partygoers sitting in chairs with their backs to the
device while the Duke of Mantua rubs his thigh, chews on a
couple of hangnails, and then starts singing “Questa o
quella.” Rigoletto kind of stumbles around stage but he
doesn’t walk like a hunchback, nor is his hunchback centered
on his spine. Rather, it seems to be some sort of humongous
shark fin that grows out of his right shoulder blade. During
the duet with his daughter Gilda, he strips his shirt off to
reveal this bony mass in all its gory glory. Why on earth he
keeps his suspenders on over his bare chest escapes me. The
stage business when the Duke arrives in Rigoletto’s garden
to meet with Gilda is quite clever: The Duke knocks on the
door to distract Rigoletto, then runs around to the other side
of the stage set.
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Fanfare Magazine Archive of CD Reviews: VERDI: Rigoletto (Jesus López-Cobos)
21/05/16 00:28
Marcélo Álvarez is excellent as the Duke both vocally and
visually, though he flaunts the score to milk the high B at the
end of “La donna è mobile.” Carlos Álvarez as the title
character, despite his not walking at all like a hunchback, is
also a fine actor. His voice has an unusually dark, almost
black tone, which is appropriate for the character. In general
he sings well, but sometimes his sustained tones have a trace
of unsteadiness to them. Surprisingly, the Monterone,
Stanislav Shvets, has a magnificent bass voice while the
Sparafucile, Julian Konstantinov, has a weak, tremulous,
poorly projected voice. Konstantinov barely reaches the low
F at the end of the duet with Rigoletto, and everything else
sounds swallowed, ill-projected, and wobbly.
Inva Mula is a lovely if mature-looking Gilda. Though she
certainly has high notes and her tone is silvery, she has too
fluttery a vibrato. By the time she reaches “Ah veglia, o
donna” she warms up and sounds a little better. The often-cut
music in this duet and “Addio, addio” is restored. As the
opera progresses, we realize her virtues and defects: It’s a
fairly large lyric voice, not well-schooled in fioratura, which
causes her to smudge the triplets in “Si, vendetta!” In doing
so, she ruins the musical and dramatic effect Verdi intended.
Yet she is a good actress, and at times her singing is very
impressive, especially in the storm scene where her powerful
tones ring out in a way that no soubrette could. In short, I
like her but realize her limitations.
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Nino Surguladze is an excellent Maddalena, in fact one of
the best I’ve ever heard in the modern era. I also like some of
Vick’s stage effects in the later acts, such as putting the
interior of Sparafucile’s hut on a tilted circular table and
having the cyclorama slowly spin to reveal the Duke’s
female conquests, pinned to the wall like so many butterflies,
as he sings his hypocritical aria “Ella mi fu rapita!”
Jesús López-Cobos has somehow gained enormous
international fame as a conductor. I’m not entirely sure why.
Granted, he always draws a beautiful tone from an orchestra
(when he was music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, he
replaced players and had bafflers put on stage to redirect the
orchestra’s sound), but is usually, as here, a pedantic
literalist. All of the notes are there, but he has no life or
drive. One will listen in vain for the orchestral detailing and
drive that Tullio Serafin and Richard Bonynge brought to
this opera in their recordings. Even Molinari-Pradelli sounds
positively scintillating compared to López-Cobos. Thus the
orchestral part of this music drama has, simply, no drama at
all. It is a limp fish. In the middle of “Parmi veder le
lagrime,” his conducting is so sluggish that Marcélo Álvarez
loses the beat. In sum, interesting, worth seeing once, but
flawed. Lynn René Bayley
This article originally appeared in Issue 34:2 (Nov/Dec 2010) of
Fanfare Magazine.
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Fanfare Magazine Archive of CD Reviews: VERDI: Rigoletto (Jesus López-Cobos)
Contemporary Venezuelan Music
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Jesus López-Cobos
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