'Genius': Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ to conclude Israeli Opera Season

Giuseppe Verdi’s 1851 opera Rigoletto returns this month to the Israeli Opera with Ioan Hotea as the duke, Ionut Pascu as Rigoletto, Hila Fahima as Gilda, Mariano Buccino as Sparafucile, and Maya Lahyani as Maddalena.

“Verdi was a genius,” Lahyani told The Jerusalem Post, “and in this opera, there is plenty of irony, social criticism, and truth in the sense that everybody needs to make a living.”

“Each character takes itself seriously,” she added.

This means that when her character suggests to Sparafucile not to murder the duke, but kill Rigoletto instead and rob him, the brother is livid.

“Do you think I’m a bandit? I am a murderer! Not a thief!”

Similarly, Rigoletto is genuinely hurt when Count Monterone (Changdai Park) curses him. 

Rigoletto, an invalid, is simply earning a living in the duke’s service. In his eyes, and others, he is not a member of the ruling class. 

This is painfully clear in “Cortigiani Vil Razza Dannata” (Courtiers, vile damned race) when he weeps for mercy and is met with contempt.

“Rigoletto thinks that if he puts on a mask, he is safe,” Fahima said. “As she understands him, if he could quit being a fool and live with Gilda in the house he keeps her in forever, that would be ideal.”  

Opera that offers a glimpse into the soul

The duke’s two famous arias in this opera, “Questa o Quella” (This Woman or Another) and “La Donna è Mobile” (Woman is Fickle) offer a glimpse into the soul of a self-centered man who is truly in love with women, in general, not any specific one – and love itself.

This magnificent role was offered in cinema by Polish-Jewish tenor Jan Kiepura in the 1935 German black-and-white comedy Ich liebe alle Frauen (I Love All Women) and Luciano Pavarotti in the 1982 color film Rigoletto by director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. 

Many see this filmed production as a gold standard of the Verdi opera with Ingvar Wixell as Rigoletto.

FOR FAHIMA, this rosy view of the duke is at best misleading.

“There can be no doubt this opera is chauvinistic,” she said, “‘La donna è mobile’ is an aria about what a woman is, but there is no aria about what a man is.”

“Rigoletto’s instinct about his daughter, to keep her under lock and key and in the dark, is a deeply controlling one.” 

“Unlike Carmen,” Lahyani noted, “Maddalena is a victim of her life circumstances. However, she is very aware of her advantages and attempts to make the most of them. She does want to save the duke in her own way.”  

Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter, first sees the duke in church, the one place her father allows her to go to – and is smitten. This opera is full of doubles. Rigoletto serves the duke as his double, and absorbs the curse of Monterone for his master. 

Monterone is a mirror image of Rigoletto’s fatherly sorrows. Sparafucile mirrors Rigoletto, “he kills with a sword,” the jester notes, “I with a word.” Gilda is the naive double of Maddalena.

“I think that he does love his daughter and means well,” Fahima said about Rigoletto, “but his path is wrong. His own dread – that if his daughter is pretty and smart the only thing to do is to lock her up because the world will harm her – is what pushes her away to run off with the duke, who is the first man who shows any interest in her.”

“There are problems with operas from the past,” Lahyani argued. “There is plenty of violence against women, racism as well. These works were made at different times by people who saw things differently.”

At the same time, she noted, “these are masterpieces that could, and should, be seen with fresh eyes and there are talented artists who are up to the task.”

For Lahyani, one of the near-miraculous aspects of opera is how the emotions the singers release on stage enter the heart of the audience instantly, in a never-to-be-repeated moment.

“There are things people are unable to fully understand, or process,” she explained, “until they encounter them in music. This experience, of reaching with my vocal cords the heart of the patron on that evening’s performance, will always be relevant.”

Said Fahmia: “I often feel how the music sung on stage meets my own personal life. This is a role I first saw when I was 15 and visited the opera; when I inhabit it, I always connect to this idealism – the faith that true love is real.”  

Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi will premiere at the Israeli Opera, 19 Shaul Hamelech St., Tel Aviv, on Sunday, July 7, at 7:30 p.m. with more shows offered until Thursday, July 18, at 6 p.m. Tickets range from NIS 195 to NIS 455. Performed in Italian with English and Hebrew titles, the opera is three hours long, with two intermissions. Call (03) 692-7777 to book.