Verdi: Rigoletto, The Metropolitan Opera

"What happened in Vegas should have stayed in Mantua" (N Y Post)
Admittedly, my review comes, not from the DVD, but from televison's "Great Performances at the Met" presentation
Before the performance began, an opening segment indicated that portions of the presentation might be offensive to some people. How right they were. The entire production was offensive to me. And, in her opening remarks, Renee Fleming said, "Here is OUR (capitals for emphasis) Rigoletto." And so it was; it was certainly not Verdi's Rigoletto.
Beyond taking the story totally out of context, the biggest problem was that the character and relationships of Rigoletto are never clarified. At one point, he sings, "I have to do what the Duke tells me." Why? What was the hold the the Duke has over him? In Verdi's Rigoletto, he is the jester in the Duke's court, and that makes sense. And, why do all the other courtiers despise him so? In Verdi's Rigoletto, he constantly taunts them. Why does Monterone curse him? (Actually, the English subtitles imply that he is...

Trashing Opera at the Met
Gounod: FaustThe Metropolitan Opera under the misguided leadership of Peter Gelb and some tasteless set directors has entered a new era known as "Trashing Opera at the Met." It's a shame to see talented singers stoop so low as to perform great works of operatic literature in surroundings that the composers and librettists would find appalling and completely disrespectful. Last year the Met degraded Gounod's "Faust" and Goethe's poetic masterpiece by placing Faust in a nuclear power plant. This year the Met has degraded Verdi's great masterpiece "Rigoletto" by placing him in the cheap glitter of Las Vegas. It appears that the Met has decided to hire set designers who either don't have any appreciation for what the composer and literary source had in mind or, perhaps, have never read the the literature or librettos that inspired great composers like Gounod and Verdi. Yes, there is always a audience for trashy...

If you like opera for the music then this is for you
If you're the type of opera fan who rejects an opera as bad based on liberties taken with the setting then this production isn't for you.

If, however, you're the type of person who values the quality of the music and the main requirement you have of the setting is that it not distract you with odd incongruities when you're watching the performance then I think you'll enjoy this. I've seen productions of Don Giovanni set in modern times, for example, that still kept the sword fighting. That's distracting to me. If an opera is set in a time where the gender norms are so wildly different that the story doesn't make sense, then that's distracting.

But the updated setting here of 1960's Las Vegas (and the characters mapping to members of the rat pack) is very clever. Because the 60's were so culturally riotous it doesn't distract to have a lecherous duke along-side a religious (and maybe naive) Gilda.

I think I still would prefer to see these performers in...

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