Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto - Salzburger Landestheater

Performance 4th November

Quite spontaniously I had the chance to see the new production of Verdi's Rigoletto at the Salzburger Landestheater and I definitely have to say that it is a very good one. Amélie Niermeyer's production (stage: Alexander Müller-Elmau, costumes: Kirsten Dephoff) is not very creative and tries to shock with some quite pedophil scenes. Anyway the musical quality is way better and I would even say it is totally satisfying (which is quite a surprise from the Landestheater). Adrian Kelly conducted the Mozarteumorchester fine although the orchestra was too loud at some parts. Also some hearable mistakes (especially during the sinfonia) were a little bit annoying if you think of the Mozarteumorchester as a "professional" ensemble. Anyway the total impression was ok and the singers made it more than that.
Due to the fact that there are so many small roles that sometimes only have some sentences to say I will not talk about smaller roles than Monterone. Sorry to all roles like Marullo, Matteo or all other small roles, but I can't really say anything about such small appearances.
So Monterone, who also has a small but very important role, was sung by Einar Th. Gudmundsson. He might have a good voice but I missed the dark timbre which Monterone definitely should have. I would have casted someone whose voice is more profound and has a darker timbre.
Giovanna, a quite small role as well, was performed by Frances Pappas and did a fine job although her acting was more impressive (if you can call it impressive) than her vocal abilities.
Tamara Gura as Maddalena was more impressive with a very dark mezzosoprano, Her voice sounds quite strong and has a very beautiful tone. She also made a good impression in her sexy outfit and was able to deliver this sexiness also through her vocal performance.
Her brother Sparafucile was sung by Alexey Birkus who has a very dark and aggressive voice. It matched perfectly with his role and he also played very convincingly evil.
And now to the stars of the evening: Ivan Inverardi sang the title role and gave a great performance. His voice is dark and sounded very convincingly for this role. He portrayed the paranoid father very well and always had a fine balance between delicate singing and forte singing.
Rame Lahaj, who portrayed the role of Il Duca, also has a great voice with a very beautiful tone and a nice upper register (that is really important for this role). He sang with great ease and never showed a sign of exhaustion. Also his acting and his physique matched perfectly with his role and so his performance gave a very good overall impression.
The highlight of the performance was Eri Nakamura as Gilda. I already heard her in smaller roles in Munich but now she sang the main female role and blew me away. She has a very beautiful easygoing soprano voice with enough power and agility to perform the role of Gilda which sometimes has a very loud orchestra for a light soprano like hers. Nevertheless she never had any issues with being heard and also her upper register was powerful enough (without loosing her beautiful tone) to delight us.
So finally I can say that the three main protagonists were enormously good and I was able to enjoy the whole performance (which is not usual with the productions of the Landestheater). I award SalzburgS Rigoletto 7 stars.
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