Colourful carnal chaos and debauchery abounds in a stripped-back production under soon-to-be WNO co-General Director and CEO Adele Thomas’s direction.
Francesco Maria Piave and Guiseppe Verdi’s version of Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse (with shades of King Lear) is an abhorrent tale of lasciviousness, sacrifice and home-goal revenge.
Set against savage Arts Council cuts and WNO’s impending strike action, Thomas apparently drew inspiration from pandemic Nightingale hospitals, Hogarth and Cold War Steve’s satiric art depicting the buffoonery of the ‘people in charge’ and Pietro Longhi’s "Exhibition of A Rhinoceros At Venice" for her pantomimic creation.
Designer Annemarie Woods has pared back the set with very little on stage: a large table, splayed roast hog; seated flower bed, tiled wall with cut out oblong windows (which incorrectly dramaturgically remains for the final scenes) and black plastic-looking curtaining; and miniscule red and mirrored room for the contract sex and assassination. And lined-up racks of lighting.
Plastic features again for the kidnappers, who seem to be dressed in bin-liners, and the stage curtains are either subtle, shimmering silver or heavy plastic sheeting which, given the abundance of bodily fluids split, would seem functional. Woods’s costuming varies from flamboyant—but easily shed or lifted—Rococo dresses to cotton knickers and pop socks.
The minimalistic set allows plenty of space for the heaving mass of courtiers and ladies of ill repute to conduct a non-stop orgy, which will have had intimacy coordinator Kevin McCurdy earning every penny of his salary.
Prize-winning Italian tenor Raffaele Abete, in for Leonardo Capalbo, is somewhat lightweight as the hedonistic, floppy-haired Duke, spreading his charisma, good looks and any STIs he inevitably must have indiscriminately, but the iconic "La donna è mobile" is a pleasure as always. The "È il sol dell'anima" duet with the exquisite-voiced soprano Soraya Mafi (whose grappling with a voluminous trip-hazard dress diverts the attention) as simpering lovestruck Gilda is somewhat spoiled by gesticulation and writhing around the flowerbed.
Mafi excels and giggles girlishly with "Caro nome" and shows the richness of her range with a heartfelt "Pari siamo! -Figlia!... Mio padre!" duet with Rigoletto (the commanding Spanish-American baritone Daniel Luis de Vicente).
Luis de Vicente is convincing as tragic antihero (un-hunchbacked but clown-faced) fishnet vest and braces-clad jester Rigoletto as the tables are turned from mocking courtiers, cuckolded husbands and the father of a seduced daughter to figure of fun and distraught daddy dead-set upon revenge.
French bass Nathanaël Tavernier is creepy as assassin Sparafucile pimping his nymphomaniac sister (excellent Russian mezzo Alyona Abramova with "È amabile invero cotal giovinotto" is a high point), while baritone Paul Carey Jones is a strident Monterone whose curse sets the fate of the Fool in motion.
Diminutive Theresa Riveiro Böhm conducts with a big heart and light touch, while the mass of courtiers and licentious ladies played by the tremendous Chorus are nastiness and corruption personified, with the lingering image that of sniggering ruff and rosette-wearing voyeurs of Gilda’s ultimate sacrifice.