Rigoletto in contemporary settings
Hans Christian Hoff
and have little or no enthusiasm for Don Giovanni set in a subway
station or Tannhäuser set in the Salvation Army of contemporary Oslo.
The temptation to set Rigoletto in present-day Italy with prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi subbing for the Duke of Mantua (Berlusconi is also
from northern Italy) must be strong, but has not afik been seized upon.
There are obviously a lot of courtiers and Gildas, and Sparafuciles are
probably to be found in scores, hailing from Sicily, but who can with
any credibility pass for Rigoletto or Monterone ?
Regards
Hans
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
I recall a couple of "updates" some years back, when I still lived in
Los Angeles. One at Redlands Bowl, with Robert McPherrin (not QUITE
dead drunk) as Rigoletto. Although he wore his traditional costume, the
rest of the cast was in modern dress, the duke was gangster "Duke"
Mantua, and Monterone was led to his execution by guys toting tommy guns.
Even worse (if possible) was the L.A. Opera production, where "Duke"
Mantua was a movie mogul, the first act was a party scene featuring the
chorus in bathing suits disporting themselves around an empty swimming
pool, and excerpts from the duke's latest "hit movie" (La Vendetta)
enlivened the curtain during the overture! A mildly crippled Rigoletto
in a business suit during his "Cortigiani" didn't quite cut it, either.
(I think I simply closed my eyes at that point and waited for the
travesty to be over.)
Stephen Jay-Taylor
> What? No one remembers the English National Opera Mafia Rigoletto of 1989?-
Sic travestiit ingloria mundi...
Though the Edward Hopper Nightawks-derived Act III still looks good
and works well.
Try watching the Zurich staging, on EMI DVD, with a mightily effective
Florez and Damrau, for a modern-dress take.
SJT, limbering up for the ROH's "Anna Nicole"
chromolume
I think it was someone on Opera-L who recently suggested that most
classic old opera stories become ludicrous when put in a modern
setting, just given the technological advances of the age. Surely upon
opening the sack, Rigoletto would have been calling an ambulance on
his cellphone, and Gilda probably would have been saved. Or, she might
have texted the Duke to warn him that "that dude" and his sister are
planning to kill him. (And forget about all those "feste a tempio"
when Gilda and [screenname] Gualtier Malde most likely met as friends
on Facebook.)
Let alone Monterone being a "uom di spada" (does anyone use swords
anymore?) or the whole overlying theme of the curse (does anyone
really believe in the power of a curse quite like that anymore?) And
in this day and age of politicians being exposed for all their sexual
pecadillos, the Duke wouldn't stand a chance. ;-)
The suspension of disbelief it would take to put that story in a
modern context wouldn't be worth the effort. ;-)
James Kahn
>> What? No one remembers the English National Opera Mafia Rigoletto of 1989?-
>Sic travestiit ingloria mundi...
>Though the Edward Hopper Nightawks-derived Act III still looks good
>and works well.
>Try watching the Zurich staging, on EMI DVD, with a mightily effective
>Florez and Damrau, for a modern-dress take.
I've large excerpts of that on youtube, and it looks like
they raided Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" warehouse and
stole the costumes. And the electric blue shoebox was
pointless as far as I could tell. Quite distasteful.
As for the singing, Damrau and Florez seem out of place, though
I still like them both. She's a bit heavy-handed (and -voiced) and he a bit
too bel canto. Lucic's pretty good.
--
Jim
New York, NY
http://www.panix.com/~kahn
James Kahn
>I think it was someone on Opera-L who recently suggested that most
>classic old opera stories become ludicrous when put in a modern
>setting, just given the technological advances of the age. Surely upon
>opening the sack, Rigoletto would have been calling an ambulance on
>his cellphone, and Gilda probably would have been saved. Or, she might
>have texted the Duke to warn him that "that dude" and his sister are
>planning to kill him. (And forget about all those "feste a tempio"
>when Gilda and [screenname] Gualtier Malde most likely met as friends
>on Facebook.)
>Let alone Monterone being a "uom di spada" (does anyone use swords
>anymore?) or the whole overlying theme of the curse (does anyone
>really believe in the power of a curse quite like that anymore?) And
>in this day and age of politicians being exposed for all their sexual
>pecadillos, the Duke wouldn't stand a chance. ;-)
>The suspension of disbelief it would take to put that story in a
>modern context wouldn't be worth the effort. ;-)
The Traviata at the Met suffers from a bit of this too, from what I've
seen and heard. Not the technology, but the mores. Seeing it in modern
dress is jarring enough, but trying to picture a Germont Pere pulling
that stunt in modern times seems preposterous.
.
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
chromolume wrote:
> On Jan 14, 10:08 am, Hans Christian Hoff <hch...@broadpark.no> wrote:
>> I usually detest the moving of operas from their historical settings,
>> and have little or no enthusiasm for Don Giovanni set in a subway
>> station or Tannhäuser set in the Salvation Army of contemporary Oslo.
>> The temptation to set Rigoletto in present-day Italy with prime minister
>> Silvio Berlusconi subbing for the Duke of Mantua (Berlusconi is also
>> from northern Italy) must be strong, but has not afik been seized upon.
>> There are obviously a lot of courtiers and Gildas, and Sparafuciles are
>> probably to be found in scores, hailing from Sicily, but who can with
>> any credibility pass for Rigoletto or Monterone ?
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Hans
>
> I think it was someone on Opera-L who recently suggested that most
> classic old opera stories become ludicrous when put in a modern
> setting, just given the technological advances of the age.
I certainly agreed with that viewpoint when I saw "I Capuletti" in Los
Angeles a number of years ago. Bellini's Juliet is already far more of
a wimp than Shakespeare's, but "updating" it to the suffragette era of
the early 1900's made her even more so!
chromolume
<evgm...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> chromolume wrote:
> > On Jan 14, 10:08 am, Hans Christian Hoff <hch...@broadpark.no> wrote:
> >> I usually detest the moving of operas from their historical settings,
> >> and have little or no enthusiasm for Don Giovanni set in a subway
> >> The temptation to set Rigoletto in present-day Italy with prime minister
> >> Silvio Berlusconi subbing for the Duke of Mantua (Berlusconi is also
> >> from northern Italy) must be strong, but has not afik been seized upon.
> >> There are obviously a lot of courtiers and Gildas, and Sparafuciles are
> >> probably to be found in scores, hailing from Sicily, but who can with
> >> any credibility pass for Rigoletto or Monterone ?
>
> >> Regards
>
> >> Hans
>
> > I think it was someone on Opera-L who recently suggested that most
> > classic old opera stories become ludicrous when put in a modern
> > setting, just given the technological advances of the age.
>
> I certainly agreed with that viewpoint when I saw "I Capuletti" in Los
> Angeles a number of years ago. Bellini's Juliet is already far more of
> a wimp than Shakespeare's, but "updating" it to the suffragette era of
> the early 1900's made her even more so!
And why would anyone even want to set "I Capuletti" (let alone the
Shakespeare play) in the early 1900's? What does that gain for the
story? Or was it just to be "interesting"? lol.
I have this sneaky feeling that, a good portion of the time, updates
like that have to do more with being able to use pre-existing sets and
costumes than there being any real directorial vision. ("Geez - we
have all these turn-of-the century costumes hanging around, and, sorry
to say, no real budget to build a whole lotta new ones - would you
mind if we just moved the setting to the turn of the century? Hey - it
might even seem like we're trying to be creative..whaddaya say?")
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
chromolume wrote:
> On Jan 15, 1:49 pm, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
>> I certainly agreed with that viewpoint when I saw "I Capuletti" in Los
>> Angeles a number of years ago. Bellini's Juliet is already far more of
>> a wimp than Shakespeare's, but "updating" it to the suffragette era of
>> the early 1900's made her even more so!
>
> And why would anyone even want to set "I Capuletti" (let alone the
> Shakespeare play) in the early 1900's? What does that gain for the
> story? Or was it just to be "interesting"? lol.
L.A. Opera was going through a stage of out-Eurotrashing the Europeans!
I hope it has recovered by now, but I moved from California in 2006.
(Somehow, a duel with pistols didn't have quite the same cachet as one
with swords!)
>
> I have this sneaky feeling that, a good portion of the time, updates
> like that have to do more with being able to use pre-existing sets and
> costumes than there being any real directorial vision. ("Geez - we
> have all these turn-of-the century costumes hanging around, and, sorry
> to say, no real budget to build a whole lotta new ones - would you
> mind if we just moved the setting to the turn of the century? Hey - it
> might even seem like we're trying to be creative..whaddaya say?")
LOL! I have never understood why one cannot keep the historical period
the composer intended, and not still be "creative". Although in all
fairness, updating does sometimes make little difference. I just
finished my first viewing of a DVD of the 2007 Paris "Louise" with van
Dam as the father. More or less modern dress had little effect on the
story, and Van Dam turned in his usual stunning acting performance. (I'd
hate to have him angry with me!) I'd never seen the opera before, and
it will never be my favorite (despite the presence of van Dam), but the
"updating" really didn't much matter.
Jonathan Ellis
"James Kahn" <ka...@nospam.panix.com> wrote in message
news:igrhe7$rgo$2...@reader1.panix.com...
Hm, I've seen "Traviata" done in, well, not strictly "modern" but at least
later-20th-century setting, and it worked fairly well. By an amateur
company, no less - the only really clunky thing about it was the director's
translation and word-setting, he did his best but that particular skill was
somewhat deficient.
The actual setting used was 1960s America, contrasting a somewhat
puritanical senatorial family with the licentious "anything goes" lifestyle
of Hollywood. Violetta was portrayed as an actress who had slept her way to
the top of her profession, but was just celebrating having won an award:
Flora, pretty much the same but a few years behind in career terms. The
three noblemen from the original setting - Gaston, Marquis and Baron - had
"Marquis" and "Baron" transformed into rival film directors with "Gaston" as
a sort of go-between / fixer / agent: George Germont as a puritanical
senator on the point of retirement, hoping that his son Alfred would succeed
him in standing for the same seat. The minor roles of Doctor, Annina and
Giuseppe were pretty much unchanged apart from the names being anglicised,
although the Doctor was played by a woman (and sung in contralto register) -
mainly because of the paucity of men auditioning for minor roles in amateur
companies which are always short of men at the best of times.
The fact that our Violetta was black, added an extra angle to the '60s
setting, in the context of the civil rights movement of the day (as in:
while the "Germont" family might be all in favour of civil rights, they
lived and were running for election in a state where, even if it wasn't for
"Violetta's" history, her colour would also be a handicap to the son's
attempt at a career.)
Of course the Baron's challenging Alfredo to a duel had to be rewritten - it
became, instead, a matter of the Baron threatening to have Alfred killed
(and scaring him into fleeing the country) at the end of act 2, but being
arrested and convicted of various Mafia-related dealings in between acts 2
and 3 (and this was reported in Germont's letter to Violetta in act 3) so
that Alfred could come home safely...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've also seen "Fidelio" done, at Covent Garden no less, in a comparatively
more modern setting. Didn't require much - it was transplanted to a South
American banana republic of the kind that has regular revolutions, the
guards were all toting machine guns and Rocco used a modern camera to take a
picture of what he thought was the happy couple of Fidelio + Marcellina, but
otherwise very little change was needed. They even managed to find a
Leonora/Fidelio who looked convincing as a man, albeit barrel-chested -
something which often needs too much suspension of disbelief even in
"classic" productions...
Of course "Tosca" could work in a similar setting. I once saw it set in
70s/80s Communist Eastern Europe, for example. All you need is a tyrannical
government and a popular liberation movement whose leader ("Angelotti") is
on the run - Poland's Solidarity would be a good late-20th-century
analogue - and replace the news of Napoleon's victory at Marengo with, say,
that of the fall of the Berlin Wall: or with street protests having
overthrown an important local state government and the revolution on the
point of spreading to the capital, with the execution of "Cavaradossi" (as a
sympathiser) being the last act of a tyrannical regime ("Scarpia" and
cronies) already doomed to fall...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I haven't seen a "modern setting" version of Cosi or Marriage Of Figaro
that's ever really worked, but I could imagine either. "Fledermaus" of
course can be done pretty much anywhere and anywhen. The first three
quarters of "Don Giovanni" could also be done, but runs into problems right
when the statue starts speaking and then comes to dinner: supernatural
events are always difficult to reconcile with "updated settings"...
On the other hand, there's other operas which absolutely require the
settings they were in. "Aida" fails utterly without Ancient Egypt, for
example. "Butterfly" needs not just Japan but pre-war Japan. "Trovatore"
requires an obviously medieval notion of honour, and all the trappings of
noblemen, knights, anonymous minstrels, castles, convents and gypsies.
"Ernani" even more so. And I don't care how often the Ring Cycle has been
done in weird settings, they all fail - but then, so also do most
traditional settings...
-- Jonathan.