This Saturday, December 2, the Teatro Real hosted the premiere of the opera ‘Rigoletto’ in a stage version by Miguel del Arco, with divided opinions regarding a proposal that reinvents the vision of the female protagonist, accompanied by scenes that include rapes of a ‘pack’ and parties where the woman is simply a sexual object.
Del Arco himself had already warned in the preview that this premiere is not a “feminist” version, because feminism was already in the text. And that focus is put into practice even before the first chords of the work are played, with a chase of a woman coming out of the stalls, the end of which will be that of rape.
This brutal opening scene is followed as soon as the music of a party begins to play that the creator himself has defined as a kind of ‘bunga-bunga’ – those popularized by the now deceased politician Berlusconi.
The party in the palace is the representation of the abuse of male power – or, at least, that is how Del Arco has imagined it -: naked women walk through the rooms of the palace, being chased by elegantly dressed men who laugh and dance. At some moments, the masks worn by those present were irremediably reminiscent of the dream party from the movie ‘Eyes Wide Shut’.
And so, the viewer is placed from the beginning before a Rigoletto completely different from what has been seen until now. This is not an irrelevant fact: with this number of performances – it will be on until January 2 – Verdi’s opera becomes the most performed at the Teatro Real, surpassing ‘Aida’. It was not easy to surprise with a new proposal that has been on the stage of the Madrid coliseum so many times – and that has also caused rejection in part of the public, who booed Del Arco at the end -.
The story thus told questions the viewer about the ‘rape culture’, to which is added the necessary participation of complicit actors. In this case, it will be Rigoletto himself – a Ludovic Tezier who knows the role well and has been applauded -, father of Gilda – with whom the Duke of Mantua is infatuated – and who will act as a necessary collaborator.
FABRICS AND DARKNESS
Without her famous physical deformity – here the deformity is in the mind, in Del Arco’s imagination – she decides to lock her daughter up to protect her from the “dark world” that surrounds her, something that will end up turning against her. “Accomplice and victim of the debauchery of her master, he is both protector and executioner of her daughter,” defined the artistic director of the Real, Joan Matabosch.
Sven Jonke’s staging immerses the viewer in an almost dreamlike setting, very dark and with fabrics that change according to the needs of the scene, creating everything from a brothel to palace rooms or a mountain that seems taken from a romantic landscape. .
Although in scenes the characters appear in 16th century clothing that Verdi portrayed – and before that Victor Hugo in the short story of ‘The King Has Amusement’ -, other moments are also mixed where the modernity of the clothing seems place the viewer in the present. And there are several nude moments with women making obscene gestures, giving the idea of sexual exploitation.
THE WOMAN IS MOBILE
Without a doubt, darkness is the protagonist of this proposal, as in that third act in which there is practically a descent into hell for the Duke, represented through a visit to a brothel.
Precisely, in that third act is where one of the most anticipated moments took place, Camarena’s recitation of ‘La donna è mobile’ – under musical direction by a Nicola Luisotti who was also highly applauded -, although there have been other arias that They have even been on the verge of getting an encore – in the voice of Adela Zaharia, who gave life to Gilda.
In short, Real has taken a risk with a work that is “powerful and uncomfortable for viewers”, both for Verdi’s time and for the current one — “that is respecting the legacy with a work that continues to question, express, hit and, perhaps even outrageous”–. We must not forget that censorship has accompanied this opera from the beginning: Victor Hugo’s tragedy had only one performance, on November 22, 1832 in Paris before being banned and Verdi also only had one grace work at its premiere. at the Fenice Theater.