Arts & Events

OPERA REVIEW: Quinn Kelsey Sings the Title-Role in RIGOLETTO

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday June 09, 2017 - 12:13:00 PM

Though he has sung here before in various roles, Quinn Kelsey returned to San Francisco Opera this season as Rigoletto, in what has become a signature role for this Hawaiian-born baritone. Verdi’s Rigoletto, his “revolutionary” opera as the composer himself called it, opened on May 31 and runs through July 1. I attended the second performance on Tuesday, June 6. Adapted from Victor Hugo’s play, Le Roi s’amuse, Verdi’s Rigoletto focuses on the jester, Rigoletto, who wields his caustic tongue at the expense of the courtiers surrounding the Duke of Mantua. But beneath the hard-boiled exterior and the barbed wit, Rigoletto has a soft heart for his beloved daughter, Gilda, whom he keeps under lock and key in a vain attempt to protect her from the depravities of life at court. There is indeed an almost Shakespearian complexity to Rigoletto’s character; and Quinn Kelsey succeeded in bringing out all the nuances – the humiliation, the self-pity, the anger, the desire for vengeance, and also the deep abiding love for his daughter – that make Rigoletto such an interesting character.  

The Duke of Mantua, of course, is a womanizer par excellence, as he himself boasts in his Act I ballata, Questa o quella (This woman or that.) Portrayed here by tenor Pene Pati, the Duke is a crude lecherer, though when he encounters Gilda there are moments when the Duke seems on the brink of reforming his dissolute life because of his burgeoning love for this innocent girl. Vocally, Pene Pati has a clarion tenor, with powerful high notes that he belts out with seeming alacrity. There is not, however, much nuance in Pati’s singing. When in Act I the Duke sneaks into Rigoletto’s house to see Gilda, he deceives the girl by pretending to be an impoverished student named Gualtier Maldè. In what is supposed to be a love duet, Pene Pati’s Duke did not even look at Gilda but addressed his singing to the audience. Gilda, however, is taken in by the Duke’s good looks and seeming ardor.  

In the role of Gilda, Nino Machaidze was excellent. Granted, Machaidze’s voice is not exactly the lirico spinto voice that we usually hear in this role, which seems to call for a youthful, light soprano. Machaidze possesses a richer, more mature-sounding soprano. Nonetheless, her Caro nome in Act I was appropriately lilting, and the flute accompaniment added to the impression of hearing a caged bird singing rapturously of her first budding hints of love. Moreover, in Gilda’s duets with her father, Machaidze allowed her voice to pair beautifully with Quinn Kelsey’s baritone; and this is important for Rigoletto must sing at these moments with sustained legato just below the highest part of the baritone register. These Kelsey-Machaidze duets were highlights of this Rigoletto.  

This production of Rigoletto reprised the staging that premiered here in 1997, with De Chirico-inspired sets designed by Michael Yeargan. The slightly surrealist quality of De Chirico’s urban arcades were exaggerated by raked angles. However, for the interior of Rigoletto’s house, the choice of a garish red-orange color in rooms totally devoid of furniture seemed incongruous, neither realistic nor surrealistic, but only misguided. I seem to recall a stage-set from a much earlier San Francisco Opera production of Rigoletto that festooned the interior of Rigoletto’s house with a large, gilded birdcage complete with an exotic bird, all of which lent symbolism to Gilda as ‘a bird in a gilded cage’. Director Rob Kealy, making his company debut, moved his cast around quite deftly, especially in the scenes where the courtiers gather to taunt or to dupe Rigoletto. Chorus Director Ian Robertson mustered an all-male chorus that sang beautifully. Conductor Nicola Luisotti kept the opera moving at a moderately brisk temp, neither too slow nor too fast.  

In the role of Monetrone, the embittered courtier who hurls a curse at both the Duke and Rigoletto, Reginald Smith, Jr. possessed a powerful, deep-voiced baritone with an appropriate edge to it. As Sparafucile, the assassin-for-hire, veteran bass Andrea Silvestrelli was effectively ominous. In the role of Sparafucile’s sister, Maddalena, mezzo-soprano Zande Švėde was convincingly coquettish. In Act III, the wonderful quartet, “Bella figlia dell’amore,” which is sung in and around Sparafucile’s inn, we have four characters singing of contrasting emotions. The Duke comes on to Maddalena, who laughingly pretends to resist, while, meanwhile, Gilda laments that the Duke once spoke such flattering words to her, and Rigoletto mutters his desire for revenge. This musical gem is another highlight of Verdi’s Rigoletto. 

All of this leads, of course, to Gilda’s decision to sacrifice her own life to save that of the Duke. In spite of her knowledge of the Duke’s inconstancy, she willingly goes to her death at the hands of Sparafucile. When Rigoletto returns to the inn at midnight to collect the body of the Duke, he finds to his horror that the body is that of his own daughter. In her dying moments, Gilda promises to pray for her father in Heaven. Rigoletto can only cry out in despair, “La maladizione!” (“The curse!”), as the opera comes to a dramatic end.  

As Countess Ceprano, who early in the opera is singled out for seduction by the Duke, soprano Amina Edris was appropriately demure yet willing. Bass Anthony Reed sang the role of Countess Ceprano’s angry, jealous husband. In the role of Marullo, baritone Andrew G. Manea was an able courtier. As Giovanna, the duenna of Gilda, mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott betrayed her employer, Rigoletto, by accepting a bribe from the Duke of Mantua whom she smuggled into the house in Rigoletto’s absence. Finally, tenor Amitai Pati, the brother of tenor Pene Pati, sang the brief role of the courtier Matteo Borsa. All told, this was a very fine production of a very fine opera, in fact, one of Verdi’s finest,