Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi 3, Opera Holland Park, London W8.

3***: Clare Colvin

Verdi’s classic tragedy Rigoletto is well chosen for the opening of Opera Holland Park’s 2023 season in its renovated home. The plot, based on Victor Hugo’s French tragedy Le Roi s’amuse, is a straightforward revenge drama, in which a court jester’s mission to avenge the seduction of his only daughter by his powerful and libidinous ducal employer, has unforeseen consequences. To avoid problems with the censor, Verdi changed the title of the seducer to that owned by the recently extant dukedom of Mantua. As the opera increased in popularity after the premiere at La Fenice in 1851, the setting varied accordingly - there were several Gonzaga princes over the centuries who may have been seen as candidates.

Director Cecilia Stinton hints at a different background altogether in transporting the opera from Mantua to 20th century Oxford. The evening opens to the pealing of church bells reminiscent of the eternal sound of Italy, but also of English university cities. An oval orchestra pit separates the riotous partying at the palace in the upper stage from the lower depths, where lockable iron gates open on to the sight of a man being stripped to his underwear and forced head down into a bucket of water. He has obviously offended his peers, but they’re not actually going to execute him. The college blazers and oars brandished as weapons suggest we are among a bunch of arrogant Oxford toffs of the Bullingdon Club variety.

There is always directorial space for re-setting a popular classic in other eras, which is fine if it works, although student bullying may fall rather short of historical reality - offenders in Mantua might have been left dangling in all weathers in an open cage suspended from a tower. (It was still in place on my last visit.) Stephen Gadd’s Rigoletto is here disabled by a lame iron-encased leg rather than by a hump which doesn’t add to the plot and makes it difficult to distinguish him in the crowd. The duet between Alessandro Scotto di Luzio’s disguised Duke and OHP former Young Artist Alison Langer’s naive Gilda was beautifully sung though lacking in passion on the first night where there was room for settling in. The father/daughter relationship between Gilda and the ultra protective Rigoletto was touchingly expressed - Langer subtly combined Gilda’s childlike dependence with her fatal wish for freedom.

Lee Reynolds, winner of the Sky Arts and Critics’ Circle Awards, brought plenty of pace to his conducting of the City of London Sinfonia, particularly marked in the Act 3 at Sparafacile’s Inn, which began as a normal pub scene, with several actors playing regular customers. The full gothic took over as they made their farewells and the assassin switched to his night work. Thunder and strobe lighting (rather too much for my eyes) brought us to a richly dramatic conclusion. Excellent cameo performances by Simon Wilding’s surly Sparafucile and Hannah Pedley’s warm-hearted Maddalena, and earlier from Georgia Mae Bishop’s maid Giovanna, betrayer of Rigoletto’s trust.

Creatives

Conductor - Lee Reynolds

Director - Cecilia Stinton

Designer - Neil Irish; Lighting Designer - Jake Wiltshire

Movement Director - Caitlin Fretwell Walsh

Chorus Master - Dominic Ellis-Peckham

Fight Director - Bret Yount

Production pictures, Photos: Craig Fuller