Fanfare Magazine Archive of CD Reviews: VERDI: (Jesus López-Cobos) 21/05/16 00:28

Related Articles DVD Review by Lynn René Bayley Our Advertisers Issue 34:2 Nov/Dec 2010 VERDI Rigoletto • Jesús López-Cobos, cond; About Fanfare / Contact Us Lynn René Bayley Carlos Álvarez (Rigoletto); Marcélo Álvarez (Duke of Advertise in the Fanfare Archive VERDI Mantua); (Gilda); Stanislav Shvets (Monterone); Julian Konstantinov (Sparafucile); Mercé Not To Be Missed! ARTHAUS Obiol (Giovanna); Joán Martin-Royo (Marullo); Nino Carlos Alvarez Surguladze (Maddalena); Gran Teatre del O & Ch Marcelo Álvarez • ARTHAUS MUSIK 107 147 (DVD: 130:00) Live: Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona 2004 O & Ch Julian Konstantinov Back in the late 1970s, a now- Jesus López-Cobos defunct cable arts channel telecast a Joàn Martín-Royo magnificent production of Rigoletto Inva Mula combining the best features of traditional and innovative staging. Mercé Obiol The performance featured Nino Surguladze Margherita Rinaldi (a name Duke Of Mantua virtually forgotten today) as the Gilda greatest Gilda I’ve ever heard or Giovanna seen, Franco Bonisolli as the Duke, Maddalena Rolando Panerai as Rigoletto, Marullo Viorica Cortez as Maddalena, and Monterone Bengt Rundgren as Sparafucile, conducted with brio if not with Rigoletto Verdi: Rigoletto great genius by Francesco DVD Sparafucile Molinari-Pradelli. Among the many Arthaus Musik VIDEO 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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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 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. 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, Fanfare Archive Subscriber- as he sings his hypocritical aria “Ella mi fu rapita!” Only Features Jesús López-Cobos has somehow gained enormous Listen to Audio Samples international fame as a conductor. I’m not entirely sure why. Granted, he always draws a beautiful tone from an orchestra Laura Schwendinger: Collected (when he was music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, he Works replaced players and had bafflers put on stage to redirect the Matthew H. Fields: Double Cluster, orchestra’s sound), but is usually, as here, a pedantic literalist. All of the notes are there, but he has no life or Space Sciences / Music Among Friends drive. One will listen in vain for the orchestral detailing and Messiah College BrassCross: drive that Tullio Serafin and Richard Bonynge brought to Luminosity this opera in their recordings. Even Molinari-Pradelli sounds positively scintillating compared to López-Cobos. Thus the Michael Habermann: SORABJI: orchestral part of this music drama has, simply, no drama at Piano Music all. It is a limp fish. In the middle of “Parmi veder le lagrime,” his conducting is so sluggish that Marcélo Álvarez Michael Antonello: Collected Works loses the beat. In sum, interesting, worth seeing once, but flawed. Lynn René Bayley Open Goldberg: Open Goldberg Variations This article originally appeared in Issue 34:2 (Nov/Dec 2010) of Fanfare Magazine. Serafin String Quartet: Selected Related Articles Works Issue 34:2 Nov/Dec 2010 The Crossing: Selected Works Lynn René Bayley VERDI Ursula Bagdasarjanz: Mozart & ARTHAUS Schoeck Carlos Alvarez Ysmael Reyes: Incanto: Marcelo Álvarez

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Contemporary Venezuelan Music Gran Teatre del Liceu O & Ch Julian Konstantinov Jesus López-Cobos Fanfare Archive Advertisers Joàn Martín-Royo Buy & Sell Classical CDs at Princeton Inva Mula Record Exchange Mercé Obiol Nino Surguladze Duke Of Mantua Gilda Giovanna Maddalena Marullo Monterone Rigoletto Sparafucile VIDEO

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