A Grand Affair Review of Opera Santa Barbara’s production of RigolettoNovember 7, 2014 at the Granada Theatre By Caroline Allen ‘Whats so great about opera?’ I hear you ask. Go to a performance by Opera Santa Barbara and find out, Im tempted to say. Thats what I did (thank you Opera Santa Barbara!) and it was the most joyous thing I did all week, and who cant use a little more joy in their lives? The story is sad beyond imagining, starting with a court jester making fun of a man whos mourning the loss of his daughters honor, and ending with the same jester cradling the corpse of his own daughter after she sacrifices her life to save a licentious Duke. But opera loves stories like that-- dont ask me why, something about the dark side of humanity being necessary to showcase the bright side, I suppose. But it hardly matters. In fact, if you just listen to the music on a CD, never having heard the story, youd probably assume, as I did for years, that it was all about jolly Italians, dancing, falling in love, eating pasta, and ribbing each other to the point of uncontrollable laughter. And if youve heard any opera at all, perchance skipping through the channels on your TVor walking by a piano bar with a piping tenor showing off his stuff, youve heard some of Rigoletto. The individual melodies and arias are among the most popular and catchy in all of operadom. The production at the Granada Theatre featured a stylish set of black, white, and red, elegant but grim period costumes, and a troupe of excellent singers. Not until I saw this live production did I see how ingeniously the libretto and the music express an ironic mixture of comedy and tragedy. In act one, as Rigoletto and the Duke sing merrily of gaiety and joy, the chorus of male courtiers schemes to avenge themselves against Rigoletto. All of their voices intermingle in a gorgeous unity, but the exclamations Joy! and Vengeance!, side by side, perfectly convey the peculiarly dark humor running throughout. The two most recognizable songs have the most ironic contexts. Rigolettos daughter, Gilda, sings the luscious aria Caro nome (Beloved Name) after shes fallen in love with the Duke, whos hidden his own identity by giving her a false name. So as she sings lovingly of the false name we are bowled over by the beauty but made uneasy by the irony. The Duke sings a chirpy tune (destined to be an earworm) about the fickleness of women, La donna è mobile, when hes the terrible seducer of innocent virgins and married women alike. The stand out performer in this production was twenty-four year old Andrea Carroll, the soprano. Warm, clear, and rich, her voice soared above everyone elses. There were no disappointments and it was a pleasure to see Gilda and the Duke played by performers of great youth and vitality. I look forward to Opera Santa Barbaras production of Mozarts L’italiana in Algiers next March. Caroline Allen is a writer and painter. She teaches Narrative Prose and Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:57:05 +0000
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