To conclude COMMANDOpera’s trio of upcoming performances in European houses, we alight on the steps of the Opernhaus Dusseldorf where the Deutsche Oper am Rhein is mounting a production of Rigoletto. True to German deconstructionist modern style, this Rigoletto has been attended to by the spare hand of young Franco German modernist, Mr. David Hermann. COMMANDOpera is curious as to what this new wave of directors will be attempting once they have tired of utilitarian clean lines. One cannot help but contemplate, that perhaps the day will dawn when Mr. Zeffirelli will be considered something of a lightweight, once these boys find sequins, and feathers. However that is a day far down the road.
The work will see its premiere this Friday evening and will run for 12 performances intermittently at the Opernhaus Dusseldorf, then move over to the sister theatre in Duisburg for an additional three performances. The conducting duties have been triple cast with Mr. Johannes Debus opening the run, and Mr. Chien Wen-Pin, and Mr. Ralf Lange taking on other performances. Mr. Daniel Jakobi is announced to cover for all of the conductors.
The cast for the performance is comprised of names not particularly well known outside of Europe. Rigoletto Boris Statsenko,Herzog von Mantua Andrej Dunaev, Gilda Olesya Golovneva, Graf von Monterone Daniel Djambazian / Markus Marquardt / Adrian Sampetrean, Graf von Ceprano Rolf Broman, Gräfin von Ceprano Jaclyn Bermudez / Judita Nagyová, Marullo Dmitri Vargin / Richard Sveda, Borsa Simeon Esper / Florian Simson, Sparafucile Riihonen / Günes Gürle, Maddalena Geneviève King / Katarzyna Kuncio, Giovanna Cornelia Berger,Henker Jwa-Kyeom Kim / Franz-Martin Preihs, Page Chieko Higashi / Victoria Demkina.
COMMANDOpera is always mindful of the tight budgets provincial houses must work with, however one does not know where to look when the mannequins out distance the live artists vertically. The Duke of this performance, Mr. Dunaev owns such a delightful vocal instrument, COMMANDOpera is obliged to present it. There is nothing forced, and there is that discernible Italianate shimmering vibrato favoured by artists in the early post war period.
Mr. Dunaev sings ‘Kuda Kuda’ Lenski’s air from Eugene Onegin, Paris Opera Garnier 2008.
2 Comments
Yesterday we were fortunate enough to see the première of “Rigoletto” in Düsseldorf.
From the beginning, the minimalistic scenographic style which is very prevalent on the German stages was evident.
The plainly odd set design featured numerous mannequins that littered the set and we had no idea what they were getting at.
However, the pièce de resistance was Andrej Dunaev singing the signature aria “la donna è mobile” while floating on a undulating platform more suitable to 1960’s science fiction film.
The music, as always at the Operhaus Düsseldorf was DIVINE, however the odd scenography managed to distract from Mr Debus excellent conducting.
Thanks for taking a moment to write this highly amusing and illustrative note!