Tag Archives: death

Music, Opera & classical

Rigoletto, a review by Eva Marloes

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out of 5 stars (3 / 5)

At the core of Rigoletto is the tragedy of an overprotective father, Rigoletto, who wants to kill his daughter’s suitor, the Duke, a well-known womaniser, but has his daughter killed instead. Gilda is a victim of her father’s control, of the Duke’s seduction, but also of the often misogynistic notions of love as self-sacrifice that lead her to her demise. Yet the Duke is also tragic.

Verdi moved away from Hugo’s story Le roi s’amuse, on which Rigoletto is based. The Duke is not just a womaniser with no scruples, making fun of women in La donna è mobile. He is a dissolute man but one who is seduced by Gilda’s purity and perhaps even falls really in love with her.

It’s a tragedy that is never staged. Most productions are seduced by the need of being relevant, contemporary, even topical. There are times when, thanks to fortuitous timing, the contemporary political setting works. This is the case of the WNO’s production of Rigoletto in 2019 set the opera in Washington at the height of the #metoo era. The staging, direction, orchestra and performances were superb.

This production of Rigoletto is pleasant, with good performances but tame with a subdued orchestra and no clear take. Adele Thomas’s direction has no clear and consistent interpretation of the drama. There are references to politics and the Bullingdon club but in 18th century costumes making the staging confused and confusing. The direction constraints the performers and fails to convey the contrasting elements of the seductive myschief, tragic love, and suspence of the opera.

Daniel Luis de Vicente, Alyona Abramova, Raffaele Abete and Soraya Mafi in Rigoletto. Photo Richard Hubert Smith.

Soraya Mafi, as Gilda, has a beautiful voice and performs Caro nome impeccably, yet her Gilda is a little too fragile. Raffaele Abete, as the Duke, sings well. His voice is agile but not powerful enough to carry the persona of the Duke. The direction and interpretation makes this Duke a bit of a lightweight. He’s not seductive, he’s not even a bad boy, he’s merely vain. 

Daniel Luis Vicente excels as Rigoletto cutting a very tragic figure and, at times, stealing the scene, including the final quartet. Notable are also the performances of Nathanaël Tavernier as Sparafucile and of Alyona Abramova as Maddalena. Abramova performs soulfully, but being a mezzo rather than a contralto, does not provide a sufficient contrast with Mafi’s Gilda in the final quartet. 

The strong performances make this production pleasant but constrained and at times, especially in the final quartet, disjointed. The orchestra, conducted by Pietro Rizzo, lacks power. The scene of the storm is disrupted by the rather ill-conceived idea of firing lights onto the audience instead of letting the music conjure the wind and thunder.

The WNO can do a lot better than this, as shown recently in Il Trittico. It can excel. Let’s hope this is a blip, perhaps the result of the cutting of funding and constant insecurity over their future. The WNO is a treasure in Wales and should be supported and allowed to grow.

Dance

An interview with Karol Cysewski, choreographer of Requiem, by Eva Marloes

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Ineluctable part of life, death comes to us all. Yet, many deaths are premature and avoidable. People with learning disability are much more likely to die from an avoidable cause. The signs are missed, people are ignored, neglected, because they cannot speak, they cannot communicate their discomfort, pain, or even just hunger and thirst. They die not because of their disability, but because our healthcare system is not inclusive. 

According to the 2022 Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR), 42% of deaths of people with a learning disability were avoidable. Dance choreographer Karol Cysewski tells their story in Requiem, an immersive dance-theatre performance in collaboration with Hijinx Theatre.

I talk to Cysewski in the Seligman Studio at Chapter, set up with hospital beds and curtains. He tells me he wants to engage the audience and make them think about the unequal treatment people with learning disabilities receive. It is often, says Cysewski, the result of “somebody just didn’t think about somebody else. They were too busy and had no imagination.”

A nurse finishing their shift not thinking that the nurse coming in the next shift doesn’t know the specific needs of the patient. “They don’t know how to say ‘I’m thirsty,’ she’s busy and she’s not imaginative enough to imagine that that might happen.” That’s all it takes. Being attentive.

Being attentive is what Cysewski has been doing while teaching at Hijinx Theatre. In his work with people with learning disabilities, he has learned to treat them as people first. 

“Slow down, if you need,” says Cysewski, “and give them achievable tasks. That applies to anyone. Treating people as people first not worrying about their disability. That would apply to anyone.” 

In doing the show, Cysewski has learned about the skills and strengths of each individual actor and what they find more challenging. That might include going to lie on the bed. 

Talking about one particular actor,  Cysewski says, “I’m learning how to give time, how to take time and space for him to learn, because eventually he learns, but he needs more repetition and continuity. I’m learning not to change (what to do), give them different ideas during rehearsals.”

I ask Cysewski what is like for the Hijinx actors to work with professional dancers. he tells me that “working with professional dancers challenges the actors more and it has a better effect.” For instance, they are more comfortable leaning against a professional dancer than another actor. “It makes them look like they’re trained dancers.”

There’s still a long way to go for disabled people to be fully included. Much of the work lies in training healthcare and social care staff in how to communicate effectively with people with learning disabilities.

Requiem uses light, sound, movement, but also smell to stimulate the senses of the audience and invite them to think about how lack of inclusivity leads to avoidable deaths. The message of Requiem is one of compassion. Not in the sense of feeling for sorry for the person, but to acknowledge the dignity of the human being in front of us.

Requiem opens on the 4th of July at Chapter Arts Centre. For tickets, see Chapter.