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OPERA
Rigoletto ★★★½
Opera House Joan Sutherland Theatre, until June 26
An autocrat who lives by his own rules, treats women as disposable playthings and governs with impunity thanks to the sycophancy of others. Sounds like a normal week in the news.
Yet for all its depressing topicality, this classic production of Verdi’s Rigoletto by the late Elijah Moshinsky, with ingenious revolving set (not to mention a dinky car) by Michael Yeargan, felt more like opera’s past than its future. Elaborate stage artifice engages in diversion, while suppressing, rather than revealing, the work’s contemporary relevance.
Ernesto Petti starred as the tragic clown Rigoletto in Opera Australia’s Rigoletto.Credit: Keith Saunders
Yet the best moments were rewarding nonetheless, and act two kindled genuine engagement from the audience, thanks to the more urgently timed musical momentum from the orchestra, under conductor Renato Palumbo.
The act two duet between Ernesto Petti, as the tragic self-degraded clown Rigoletto, and Stacey Alleaume, his innocent daughter Gilda, sacrificed to corrupt power, created one of those moments in Verdi where balanced warmth and musical tension capture an essential, unresolvable truth.
Atalla Ayan as the Duke of Mantua had a strong bold sound, particularly attractive in the central register though occasionally slightly open rather than focused. In act three, he began La donna e mobile robustly but aimed for the top B at the close and missed.
As Gilda, Alleaume had a bright polished voice, singing Care nome in act one with coy lyricism. The tone was slightly exposed at the top but true in pitch, with attractively glowing rounded sound in soft notes and piercing strength in ensembles.
In act one, Petti as Rigoletto was best in moments of fierce drama where strength of tone galvanised the complex colours in his voice, though soft notes were a little pale. His first act characterisation could have been darker, but he blossomed dramatically in the later acts.
There was a splendidly malevolent edge to the low notes of Roberto Scandiuzzi’s bass voice in the part of the assassin Sparafucile. David Parkin, in the role of Monterone, delivered the curse which haunts Rigoletto to the end with unwavering force.
Sian Sharp sang with fluid colour and ease as Giovanna in the last act.
The Opera Australia Chorus was cohesively balanced, doing the twist in act one with clumsy awkwardness and acting out with self-lampooning idiocy in act two.
The Moshinsky productions from the last century are something of a treasured heirloom in Opera Australia’s repertoire, but this one would benefit from either more exacting refurbishment or retirement.
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