Reviews

Martin Adams reviews Verdi's Rigoletto at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and Michael Dungan reviews the RTE NSO at the National Concert Hall.

Opera Ireland
Gaiety Theatre
Verdi - Rigoletto

Opera Ireland's Rigoletto, a co-production with Opera Zuid of Maastricht, has some serious musical strengths. On opening night last Saturday these included the RTÉ Concert Orchestra's characterful playing under conductor Vladimir Ghiaurov, the focused singing of the all-male chorus, and a strong and consistent cast.

However, this is an opera dominated by its principals.

As Gilda, Yelda Kodalli sometimes produced a hard tone at the top. But she sang beautifully, she understood the expressive purposes of Verdi's demanding coloratura writing, and she could deliver. Robert Nagy took the Duke's part in his stride.

However, what lingered in the memory long after the performance had finished, was Marcel Vanaud's reading of the title role. He showed himself to be a true singing-actor who, even when he was not being an entirely accurate singer, got to the heart of things.

The work of the director Olivier Tambosi will linger in the memory too, but controversially. All of a piece with Frank Philipp Schlössmann's sets, Elisabeth Gressel's costumes and Nick Malbon's lighting, it epitomises direction with a mission.

But what mission? Some things come across clearly, notably the identically dressed, slimy and lascivious courtiers. Other things make you think too much, in a work whose power to shock does not need assistance.

For example, why, when Gilda is in her father's house, does the doll she cuddles look like the Duke? Everything was so packed with imagery of the suggestive kind that one even wondered about the singers' annoying tendency to sing towards the audience rather than one another. Could this be another directorial image, of alienation perhaps? Probably not.

But like all such thoughts it distracted from the essentials; and what suffered was this extraordinary opera's humanity.

Continues at 7.30 p.m. on November 22nd, 24th, 26th and 28th. For details telephone (01) 6771717 or visit www.operaireland.com.

Martin Adams

Hunt, RTÉ NSO/Markson
NCH, Dublin
Stravinsky - Divertimento (The Fairy's Kiss). Mozart - Violin Concerto No 3. Mendelssohn - Symphony No 4 (Italian).

With this performance of Divertimento - a suite of excerpts from the ballet The Fairy's Kiss - the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra continued its year-long exploration of Stravinsky, a survey which grows more rewarding with each concert.

Friday night - which marked the opening of the RTÉ NSO/The Irish Times November tour - was a case in point. The Fairy's Kiss is a comparatively obscure work and rarely heard. Yet it boasts an intriguing feature that made it ripe for inclusion in a series like this one: the composer's affectionate use of music by his forebear and fellow Russian Pyotr Tchaikovsky, to whom he dedicated the score.

Stravinsky's previous appropriations of music from earlier ages had never before included anything so romantic. And even though Stravinskian finger-prints such as driving, Petrushka-type rhythms are always about, the music honours rather than pastiches Tchaikovsky, so that ultimately the effect is - surprisingly but charmingly - a romantic one.

Under Gerhard Markson's calmly controlled but intensively detailed direction, the orchestra sustained an overall mood of magic and make-believe, gently evoking impressions of The Ice Maiden, the Hans Christian Anderson story upon which the ballet is based.

Providing a perfect foil to this dreamy romanticism was Mozart's Violin Concerto No 3. Markson reduced the massive Stravinsky string section to a mere handful for an intimate backdrop well-suited to the sweet tone and quiet grace of soloist Fionnuala Hunt.

The concert ended with the youthful ebullience of Mendelssohn's Symphony No 4, the Italian.

The playing was fresh and energetic, the tempos quick, and in the exciting finale Markson sharpened dynamic contrast so that its impact was even more dramatic and, well, Italian.

The RTÉ NSO/The Irish Times November tour continues in Leisureland, Galway on Tuesday, UCH Limerick on Wednesday, Cork City Hall on Thursday, and Waterford Institute of Technology on Friday.

Michael Dungan