Rigoletto

There is really nothing to say about the musical aspects of this production:it's all very well-done.We have to look at the directoral touches that Ponnelle has left on the production.And,boy,he wrote his name on this in red paint.First,I think that Ponnelle has an obsession with the early Renaissance-look where he placed "The Coronation of Poppea".And Rigoletto is not an early,but a middle Renaissance setting.The ducal court is not only licentious,but also depraved and unsanitary.Mice in the salad!And the party at the beginning throws in everything including the kitchen sink.The minor characters are all strikingly portrayed-and Bracht's cyclopean Ceprano is a physical indication of the corruption and taint of the court.Pavarotti,as the Duke,is a case-book psychopath.Lusty,charming,extroverted,and a creature at the mercy of his appetites and impulses,he lacks the faintest trace of mercy,compassion,and decency.Violent,vicious,and totally without morals,he will,and does destroy anyone who gets in his way.Interesting idea to have Wixell play both Rigoletto and Count Monterone-emphasizes the parallel between the two characters,but you could only do it in a film.Furlanetto's Sparafucile is a clinical example of Paranoid Schizophrenia;this guy is not living in the same reality that the rest of us inhabit.And Gruberova's Gilda,splendidly sung,is a little too sweet for my tastes;the character should display some ambiguous traits.The emphasis in this production is on evil,corruption,depravity,and every other noxious trait on the list.Save Gilda(and the Count of Monterone)none of these portrayals offers a redeeming grace.

But this is not an Opera filmed on a theater. It is a movie. As such the scenes are not of a theatrical production and many are in exteriors. You will not see the Orchestra pit nor the Maestro.

This requires singers that are also good actors. Pavarotti, not always a good actor in the stage, comes out superb, but the best acting performance is Ingvar Wixell, as Rigoletto.

The female roles are very inferior. Edita Gruberova is totally visually inadequate for the role of Gilda, She looks like an old witch, and totally ruins all her scenes. Madallena is a bit more credible as a "putanna", with some feelings.

The magic of an opera is best experienced by being there, and filmed stage productions sometimes are involving enough that the viewer is able to get an emotional handle on the dramatic situations at the same time experiencing some of the great singing voices of our time; odd that this filmed, dubbed version is so distancing, that during the greatest tragic moment in the opera, the camera looks on from a great distance at a boat in a lake with some opulent city skyline in the background; the same happens in the stunning quartet; in a stage production the viewer can see and hear all four characters simultaneously, and get drawn up in the emotional maelstrom created by incipient murder--not in this version, as the camera cuts from one person to another and occasionally catches duos; that said there are excellent reasons to rent this Rigoletto: Underrated Ingvar Wixell is physically and vocally intense, a great and memorable performance of the lead, and the young Pavarottis voice has few rivals (although he distances himself from other singers); there are some fascinating visual concepts in Act I, and the entire opera is easy to follow--but there are better versions on DVD and the 2012 Met Version, set in Las Vegas, is a visual and aural knockout.

Verdi's opera Rigoletto (1987) was directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Ponnelle was a brilliant operatic director. He directed many operas on stage, almost always to great critical acclaim.

What makes this Rigoletto different is that it's not a filmed opera performance. It's a movie, where Ponnelle can use his talents to embellish the great voices in the cast.

The excellent Swedish baritone Ingvar Wixell stars in the title role. The Czech Nightingale, Edita Gruberova, portrays Gilda, and Luciano Pavarotti is the Duke of Mantua.

If you know opera, you'll love this movie. If you don't know opera, you'll love this movie. This is the greatest opera on film that I've seen. It has a very strong IMDb rating of 8.1. I thought that it was even better than that and rated it 10.

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle made many opera films between 1974 and 1988. This was at a time when it was unusual and technically quite difficult to record live performances of operas on stage. Ponnelle tended to make operas look like Hollywood musicals. They have high production values and are visually attractive. The performers are world-class but the singing is dubbed and the films have an artificial look about them. I am aware of the irony of complaining that Ponnelle's opera productions look artificial: what could be more artificial than people singing a story on a stage? But we accept opera within its own conventions. If the singers are not singing it looks phoney. If the performers are not doing it for real you can tell because they are not putting enough effort into it. It's a bit like soft core pornography I suppose.

This production from 1982 stars Luciano Pavarotti, who was then probably at the peak of his powers. He sounds wonderful but he has never been noted for his acting ability. He can put over an aria if he is really singing but when he is miming he has a frightened look in his eyes. Furthermore, it looks as if Pavarotti was rarely in the studio at the same time as the rest of the cast. I think only in his duet with Gilda does he appear in the frame simultaneously with another performer. It looks as though he recorded his part separately. For all I know he was probably in a different continent when the rest of the cast were making the film.

Edita Gruberova is a shrill Gilda. Ingvar Wixell is a most unsympathetic Rigoletto. He also doubles the part of Monterone. This only serves to underline the artificiality of the enterprise. The only reason I bothered to review this film is that it is still doing the rounds on a British arts channel. I actually pay a subscription to see things like this. The following night, I watched a recording of the wonderful 2001 Covent Garden production of the same opera. It is reassuring to see how far the filming of opera has advanced in the last 20 years.