Seattle.(North America)(Rigoletto)(Opera Review)

A huge image of Il Duce projected on a drop-curtain during the prelude to Act I left little doubt as to where and when Seattle Opera's production of Rigoletto (seen October 16) was to be set: this was the Italy of Benito Mussolini in the late 1920s and early '30s. When the curtain rose, on one side of the stage was a large Futurist-style portrait of a man who might have been the Duke; on the other side was a copy of The Rape of the Sabine Women by the Flemish-born Italian Mannerist sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608). In between was the billiard room of the leader's palazzo, peopled with Black Shirts and their beautifully dressed women. Marie Anne Chiment's costumes were entirely right, as was Robert Dahlstrom's adaptation of his 1988 Rigoletto's (historically correct) sets to suggest the updated locale. Equally commendable were Edoardo Muller's conducting, dramatically brisk and lyrically detailed, and Linda Brovsky's suave staging, her direction in part inspired, according to Seattle Opera's general director Speight Jenkins, by the Futurists. Dynamism, speed and simultaneity were key terms in the Futurist manifesto, and this Rigoletto displayed all three qualities.

The Duke of Mantua is the dynamo that drives the opera forward, a man whose affections and lusts change with the speed of lightning. Frank Lopardo didn't do much to create a complex character, but, in fine vocal fettle, he basically stood up and sang in the grand old-fashioned Italian style. When Lopardo turned up at Sparafucile's shady ...