I only heard the first half hour & the closing cry of despair from Rigoletto, so can't comment on the performance, but if this is to be the new way of broadcasting Met performances - recorded rather than live - surely the dreadful witterings could be cut? Were the interval interviews kept?
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Usual thread hijack by BSP, this time for the Met's quarantine-time offering this weekend (just a few hours left) of the "Rat Pack Rigoletto" in the Michael Mayer production, with Željko Lučić (title role), Diana Damrau (Gilda), and Piotr Beczała (the Duke). Given my recent "meh" feelings about MM's recent La Traviata for the Met Opera, I had somewhat jaded pre-conceptions. However, once past the obviously garish neon visual vulgarity of the opening Las Vegas casino scene, I have to admit that the update worked pretty well, better than I was expecting, the Arab sheik garb for Monterone aside, perhaps. Vocally, strong work from everyone, and Michele Mariotti guided things well from the pit.
The intermission features were placed as an appendix after the performance, and it was interesting to hear 3 of the supporting singers mention real-life inspirations from the Rat Pack to inform their characters. From what Lučić and Damrau said to Renee Fleming, when she asked them what they thought of the updated setting (almost trying to bait them in a way, perhaps w/o RF realizing it), neither of them particularly raved about it. But they politely, and maybe simply (or diplomatically), seemed to accept it as the director's idea, and they were willing to run with it. Damrau did point out that perhaps there was more physical closeness, to express family affection, between father and daughter in a 1960s setting compared to 400 years earlier. In a way, maybe MM here is doing an American version of Regietheater. -
Is there a technical reason why we can only pick up bits of this production via websites? It should surely be available in the MET App on our TV with the Roku stick - but tonight it doesn't appear there. It's a bit frustrating to only be able to catch parts of this, somewhat erratically. We should still have been able to pick up most of this after the Yound Musician competition. The singing sounds beautiful, but it would be good to see the action propertly as well.
Currently we appear to have found some of it on an iPad - but it's not ideal.Comment
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