Just walking into the Metropolitan opera on the night of September 29 gave me chills. The imposing size and admirable structure gave a keen palpability to its reputation and I couldn’t believe that I was so near the stage on which numerous greats had stood. I recognized opera as a high talent and appreciated what I was in for!
The set was intricately designed and provided a very appropriate backdrop for the events of the plot. Though imagination can take one far, having a realistic setup made viewing the performance that much easier, especially when one is already faced with the challenges of keeping track of the actions, reading the translation and appreciating the singing and music all at the same time! Just doing all of those things kept me working hard the whole time, but it was an enjoyable labor.
I found the character of Rigoletto, played by Lado Ataneli, to be passionate and convincing. I was able to almost immediately not only sympathize, but empathize with him, and I think that this was due to Ateneli’s passionate singing as well as his appropriately dejected posture. Gilda, played by Christine Schafer, on the other hand, did not win my automatic friendship. I found her to be more bland and not too convincing. Even when I tried my best to suspend belief, I still found her core emotions to be pretty weak. I felt that I had to make more assumptions about how the character should be feeling than what she was really portraying. The Duke of Mantua was played very well by Francesco Meli (I don’t have enough music knowledge to judge the malignant effect of his cold on his singing, though). I enjoyed the strength of his voice and his poignant glances. Call me naïve, but contrary to what William Berger seemed to insinuate, I did not find the Duke to be heartless and conniving. I believed him when he said that he may be ready to change his ways for Gilda and I wasn’t able to hate him for what he did. I found him to be a regular person, with flaws like the best of us.
No matter what anyone says, I felt my breath caught up when the duke sang the infamous “La donna e mobile” aria and I feel that no matter how many times it is heard, it resonates deeply. The fickleness of women (as well as that of men who blame it all on women!) is such a timeless and interesting theme and the music is just heart wrenching. The stateliness and strength of the music throughout the whole opera really made the show as I felt my heart beating along with the instruments and the emotions.
Please find a performance of “La donna e mobile” in Russian, below
