Arts Alive San Antonio

BY JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

From start to finish, Opera San Antonio’s production of Verdi’s operatic masterpiece, Rigolleto, was a work of art in every way. Every part of it – scenery, chorus, orchestra, soloists, direction and lighting – contributed to telling the story and letting Verdi’s music do what it’s been doing for the past 170 years – engage, delight and move the audience.

At its core, the opera’s story is one of abuse of power by the rich and mighty and the havoc that such behavior wreaks with the lives of ordinary people. This is a theme that writers have explored through the ages and we are still dealing with it today.

The title character, Rigoletto, is the court jester for the powerful Duke of Mantua who is an abuser of people, including his courtiers, who let him get away with it because they fear being banished from the palace. Beautiful women, however, are his favorite victims. In the opening scene, a father of one such victim, Monterone, barges in while the duke is amusing his courtiers with stories of his sexual conquests. The enraged Monterone angrily accuses the nobleman of raping his daughter. Being the jester, Rigoletto mocks Monterone, provoking the latter to curse both him and his master.

Callous as the duke is, however, he’s also young, handsome and well-spoken, and he attracts the attention of Rigoletto’s precious, innocent daughter Gilda, who falls in love with him. What follows is a tragedy in the making, developing through plot twists and turns accompanied and sustained by glorious music.

Canadian-Ukrainian Soprano Andriana Chuchman was a captivating Gilda Saturday, whose sonorous, pliable and nuanced singing was a big part of this production’s success. She and the duke- portrayed by tenor Santiago Ballerini – were almost a match made in operatic heaven. As the duke, Ballerini got to deliver one of the most popular operatic arias ever, La Dona e Mobile, which translates as “Woman is Fickle.”

A fine actress, Chuchman tackled all her scenes with ease, first portraying a loving daughter, then morphing into a young woman in love, and later into a bitterly disappointed-but-still-in-love tragic figure. According to bio information, she recently played the role of Gilda at the Metropolitan Opera where she replaced the originally hired soprano who dropped out due to illness.

Her aria “Caro Nome” (“Dear Name”) was beautifully rendered in OSA’s production, truly an expression of first love, delicate, youthful, with touches of lovely coloratura displays.

As Rigoletto, James Westman, kept us enthralled throughout the performance by the power of his acting as his character was experiencing rage, need for revenge, and ultimately a crushing defeat and unbearable pain.

We should also mention Andrea Silvestrelli as the killer Sparafucile whose resonant bass voice and overall cold demeanor created quite a presence in the few scenes he was in.

Stage director E. Loren Meeker, who happens to be OSA’s general & artistic director, has done a superb job of presenting this epic tale of ill-fated human affairs, amply aided by the 52-member orchestra conducted by music director Francesco Milioto in the pit.

Now, we are looking forward to what this team will create next time.