Kelly Newberry

Italian Exam Part II

Winter 2019

Opera Rome opens with Rigoletto: Verdi

during the Salò era
Applause for the characters wearing boots and black shirts. And the stage director Daniele
Abbado is inspired by the film “Novecento” by Bernardo Bertolucci

ROME Bernardo Bertolucci’s film Novecento flavored yesterday’s Rigoletto, which

opened the season of Opera Rome, and was set in the Republic of Salò. The Verdi was
presented by two Milanese Danieles: the stage director Daniele Abbado and the
conductor Daniele Gatti, who had wanted to liberate the music of the usual tradition
that prizes high notes, ornaments and the simplification of difficult passages, as well as
the unwritten notes that allow the singers to do vocal somersaults.
Despite this, it was warmly received (eight minutes of applause), and Abbado’s direction
brought whistles.

News that was leaked from the Campidologio outshines the operatic spectacle: Gatti has
been put forward as the new musical director of the theatre, the announcement will be
given tomorrow by the Mayor Virgina Raggi, who was present in the theatre yesterday.
The previous was Gelmetti from 2009, before that, was Giuseppe Sinopoli who lasted
two years as unofficial interim, and after Ricardo Muti, who prudently limited himself to
honorary director.

For an ongoing heavyweight and international director in Rome, one needs to hearken
back to Tullio Serafin 1934-43, almost a century ago. The past year, Gatti was a step
away from accepting that title. Now he has plenty of free time, because of sexual
harassment allegations that caused his dismissal from the Concertgebouw of
Amsterdam. There are no specifics about the situation coming from the Netherlands,
and they are limiting themselves to saying that some women of the orchestra, without
giving their names, did not feel safe or comfortable around the Italian conductor, who
has refuted every accusation. This happened after an event from 20 years ago that was
reported by two singers to the Washington post.

Rigoletto is his first opera since the summer scandal, save for concerts in Florence,
Monaco, St. Petersburg, and in China. He will find a theatre in growth that has been
happening during the past four years, under superintendent Carlo Fuortes, from 7 to 14
million in profits. It seems to be an even exchange: for the theatre and for the director it
is a boon.
Well now, Rigoletto. The splendid voice of Lisette Oropesa as Gilda unites itself with the
great experience of Roberto Fronatli, who appeared with a sparkling blue jacket, a
clown white face: he did not have a hump, he walked with a little limp as if he had one.

The block of red buildings commemorate the farmstead setting of the film, as well as the
steel stairs that are all over the set. Thanks to the houses with their stair rails and the
fog of the Po, the director’s vision hardly vanished. Next the setting, Bertolucci tours
through Verdian places and even to Mantua, where the opera carries out. It is notable
to mention the first scene of the movie, in which the hunchback of the village, named
Rigoletto for his passionate singing, comes howling to announce the death of Verdi. The
duke’s party has orgiastic moments, the women in fishnets; the men morose and
menacing, in uniforms, black boots and shirts, or in plain clothes like the secret police,
highlighting their muscularity. We move from the 16th century to the tail end of fascism.
But it does not lay it on thick; there is no ideology, nor the pulp fiction that is in vogue
today. Political power and the abuse of that power. The plausibility of the setting is in
what the protagonist says to Gilda: “Religion, family, patriotism, and my universe is in
you”. And thinking of the libertine duke, Verdi describes him like “an absolute dictator”;
for Abbado “one who doesn’t care”.

“Prepare yourself for a possible shock,” notes Gatti. “If one uses a phrase or an unusual
color, it creates havoc. Let us liberate ourselves from recordings, today we should want
things that Verdi pushed for when he thought of writing this way.” He has split the score
into four parts. The score is a key that is intellectualized, it is restless and dense,
renouncing to the fire and to the genuine freedom that burns between deceit and
revenge, choosing “slow tempos” (Here and there with sudden and quick ignition.) He is
a Rigoletto with lone nobility, whole and functional “to the drama and not to pure vocal
virtuosity” The melody was entrusted with the orchestra, the characters reflecting
through singing “talking” about their own conditions. It is very modern take on theatre.
Rigoletto’s deformity is one that is interior, which is his curse; his beloved daughter that
dies walking, as if transfigured. The two Daniele’s comeback, “we are not saying the
truth, or listening to the directors, but only following the directions of the composer”
The spectacle is meant to be homage to Verdi.