Review: RIGOLETTO, Opera Holland Park

Bullying, sexism, corruption, initiation ordeals and debauched behaviour. No, it’s not another government inquiry into the antics of the elite, but Opera Holland Park kicking off the 2023 season by way of a new and thought-provoking production of Rigoletto.

The dynamic duo of young conductor Lee Reynolds and innovative director Cecilia Stinton cleverly transfer Guiseppe Verdi’s tragic tale from Renaissance Mantua to an Oxford college in the 1920s.

To get us into the spirit some of the opening music is ingeniously played on a crackly old 78-rpm gramophone. And there’s lots of bustling about on bicycles, feathered flappers dancing the Charleston, thwacking of cricket balls, and preening Bullingdon Club types in bowties and waistcoats.

Hats off to designer Neil Irish for sumptuous costumes and academic common room décor. Think polished wood bookshelves with gleaming trophies and leather-bound editions, High Table dining and the backdrop of the park’s Holland House really coming into its own as an Oxbridge dreaming spire.

Alas, sometimes Irish’s creative efforts are lost on the upper platforms on the doughnut-shaped stage (the orchestra the jam in the centre, with surrounding rostra). A pity, as the attention to detail is splendid and it would be good to see more at close quarters.

Placing the action in the Jazz Age lends Gilda (soprano Alison Langer, beneficiary of Opera Holland Park’s Young Artists’ Scheme) more agency. She makes her entrance confidently through the audience, and departs (spoiler alert) as a corpse in the same emphatic way. Gilda’s sacrifice for the man she loves isn’t a submissive gesture from Rigoletto’s cloistered daughter, but a declaration of what a woman believes she must do.

‘Jester’ Rigoletto (baritone Stephen Gadd, who performs admirably while suffering from a cold) is portrayed as a disabled war veteran, with medals on his chest and brace on his leg. An ‘outsider’, his role is to entertain the Duke of Mantua (engaging tenor Alessandro Scotto di Luzio, masquerading as a student to seduce Gilda) and his bullying hangers-on. Showing how Rigoletto’s taunted because of difference (he’s constantly relacing his leg brace, which obviously causes him pain) is an added touch that resonates with today.

Standout star of the evening is Langer.  She hits every sweet spot, while displaying courage and power. The soprano garners plaudits from the audience at this performance, with enthusiastic cheering and stamping of feet.

Other talent to acknowledge is baritone Jacob Phillips (in the role of Marullo), Simon Wilding as assassin Sparafucile and Hannah Pedley (as a sparky Maddalena).

And under Reynolds’ agile conducting, the City of London Sinfonia and Opera Holland Park Chorus are on fire, making this fresh take on Rigoletto accessible not only to the elite – but to everyone.

Rigoletto runs at Opera Holland Park until June 24

Photo credit: Craig Fuller