San Antonio Opera
A lavishly cast "Rigoletto"
June 19, 2010With its staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” which opened on June 18, San Antonio Opera has rediscovered an ingenious, time-tested solution to the Municipal Auditorium’s deadly acoustics: Big voices.
And good ones, too. For its second try at “Rigoletto” -- the first was in 2003 -- the company has fielded the strongest and deepest cast, by a comfortably wide margin, in its 14-year history. With the excellent Mexican conductor Enrique Patrón de Rueda leading the proceedings, the musical values were fully up to the best standard for regional companies. The physical production -- um, not so much.
Back in the olden days, from the 1940s through the mid-60s, the San Antonio Symphony staged its annual opera festivals in the 5,000-seat auditorium. There weren’t many complaints about the poor acoustics, in part because the principal roles were sung by the top stars of the Metropolitan Opera. Richard Tucker might not have been the subtlest of tenors, but by golly you could hear him.
San Antonio Opera could not afford big voices for its earlier forays into the auditorium, the venue of last resort when Cockrell Theater was unavailable. The company bravely tried the big old barn without amplification for two productions, but the singers could hardly be heard. In later shows with amplification, the results were even worse.
Learning its lesson, the company bit the bullet and put its money into a “Rigoletto” cast that could overcome the auditorium’s acoustical terrors and do it (for the most part) beautifully, without electronic help. (A double-bill of "Pagliacci" and "Suor Angelica" this September will likely be the last time San Antonio Opera uses the auditorium before it is gutted and reconfigured with a much-smaller theater.)
Baritone Daniel Sutin brought a rich, honeyed instrument to the title role of the hunchbacked jester. As a singing actor, he was most affecting in tender moments with Gilda, the daughter Rigoletto hopes vainly to protect from his lascivious employer, the Duke. Sutin did not , however, summon quite enough righteous malevolence for the accusatory “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata,” and he did not command the stage as fully as this role wants -- and the vast space of the Municipal Auditorium requires. Part of the problem may have been purely visual: The jester’s motley in the first two acts could have passed for Iraq war camouflage fatigues. Except for his bright green stockings, he blended into the background.
Soprano Audrey Elizabeth Luna was a splendid Gilda, impressing equally with her click-stop precision and accuracy in “Caro nome” and with her melting warmth in “Tutte le feste al tempio.” Her silvery, horn-like timbre was consistently attractive, and she brought a particularly supple, natural sense of rhythm to everything she sang.
Lyric tenor Michel Wade Lee’s robust, youthful and nearly effortless instrument was admirably suited to the role of the Duke. Notes above the staff were a stretch for Lee, but in every other respect this was a winning performance.
A mark of the company’s advancing maturity was the care (and expense) that went into secondary roles. Bass Matthew Treviño was a powerful, deliciously menacing Sparafucile, the assassin; he must have carried an auxiliary wind supply for his daringly extended low B-flat at the end of the Act I duet “Quel vecchio maledivami!” Dramatic mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller was a sultry and lustrous Maddalena, Sparafucile’s sister, who appears only for a short time in Act III. It was an act of cruelty to allow the local audience so brief a hearing of such a wonderful voice.
The physical production, alas, wasn’t equal to the cast. The sets, ancient painted drops from Stivanello Costume Co., were tatty and droopy. Much of the action takes place at night, so lighting designer Max Parrilla was able to obscure the decor’s flaws with dim but atmospheric illumination. With no follow spots, however, the singers were too often lost in darkness. Sam Mungo’s stage direction was barely serviceable, at best, and often static.
Mike
Greenberg
