Rigoletto, 2008
Photo: J. Reeder
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Review: Rigoletto
"Rigoletto: Opera New Jersey"
Opera News (David Shengold)
online edition
Opera New Jersey offered its second annual winter semi-staged opera in three venues this year: the successful Rigoletto (February 8) in Princeton's McCarter/Matthews Theatre came between shows in Morristown and New Brunswick. ONJ's winter productions deploy more advanced professional talent than their apprentice-oriented summer fare; there were certainly elements in this performance worthy of major stages.
Via monitors, conductor John Keenan coped well with the odd staging conditions: the orchestra played behind a scrim at the back of the stage. Keenan shaped the preludes with gravity and kept everything in fluid balance; he had good players, string tone proving notably fine, so the musical rewards were on a higher level than many regional companies can offer. Michael Scarola's direction made skillful use of minimal sets and props to evoke the needed story points, though a gag might have been found for Gilda's abduction, which also might have been accomplished by having someone other than very young-looking ballet boys scramble over the wall...
Rising star Eglise Gutierrez, modest and appealing in bearing yet a passionate presence, sang a deeply impressive, beautifully phrased Gilda with a striking personal sound, superb trills and stunning acuti. John Osborn's timbre does not evoke Italy, but it's a well-projected, pliant sound, boasting verbal clarity and rhythmic precision — and fearless up to high D. He alternated his Dukes here with Chicago Barbiere rehearsals taken over from Juan Diego Flórez; exhaustion may have been responsible for a slight memory lapse and some tempo disagreements in an otherwise capable "Parmi veder le lagrime." Kevin Langan, a seasoned artist in the best sense, lent Sparafucile his excellently preserved bass and a detailed, layered characterization. Baritone Richard Zeller started at the Met as Count Ceprano in 1989, working his way up to important middleweight parts such as Marcello, Shchelkalov (Boris) and a fine Chorèbe (Troyens). There's always a question of how such voices develop next. Zeller sounds in reasonable shape, and he honored a lot of lower dynamic markings that Rigolettos often blast through.... Sincere and sometimes moving, his portrayal seemed an honest work-in-progress.
...Ben Wager, too youthful and gym-toned a Monterone to merit being called "Vecchio" by Rigoletto, nonetheless proved striking in this often undercast part, with a strong, wide-ranging instrument and commanding presence. ...Sean Anderson (Marullo) revealed a fine voice...
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