Wednesday is Matinee Day Part Two

Yippee! Covent Garden Opera House: The ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, where THE ROYAL OPERA presents royally staged operas! The ROYAL OPERA HOUSE FOUNDATION is chaired by The Countess of Chichester and Lady Young of Grafham, along with Sir Simon Robertson and Dame Gail Ronson (DBE: it means, I think: Dame of the British Empire; or maybe Don't Be Early). The Patron is HRH The Prince of Wales, Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover and Dame Vivien Duffield. The building also house the ROYAL BALLET, quite royal, since its patron is none other than the one and only HM The Queen and the President is HRH The Prince of Wales (again, so busy) and the Vice President is The Lady Sarah Chatto. Dame Monica Mason (DBE) (world famous ballerina) is the Director.

Joking aside, this is one of the most famous and most beautiful and grandest performing centers in the world. It sits on Covent Garden Square, and overlooks Covent Garden Market, filled with cafes, cutsie-pie shops, performing street acrobats, magicians, artsy-craftsy stalls, and pick-pockets galore.

One of the nicest parts about going to Covent Garden is that we actually know one of the Principal dancers at the Royal Ballet. Our daughter-in-law, Rie Ichikawa, is a Soloist at the Boston Ballet AND one of her former colleagues is a Principal Dancer at the Royal Ballet: Sarah Lamb. So, in a sense, we know Sarah.

We entered the Opera House, got our tickets for the show and followed the usher's directions to the correct entrance. The ticket reads: RIGOLETTO, Wednesday, 04 April 2012, 7:30 PM AND states that our seats are in the Amphitheatre Right (Please Mind The Stairs), row F, seats 58 and 60, with NO armrests. (Latecomers cannot be admitted). It also said that "people with fear of heights should be warned". A lot of information for a theater. Once we had taken the VERY long escalator to the Amphitheater level, we had enough time to enjoy the "Amphitheater Bar" with a special champagne cocktail and a plate of Italian crudite. We took the food (and the bread, delicious) and had a gin and tonic. We sat at a long table next to a couple (English) who had just returned for vacation from teaching in an international school in Indonesia!! So interesting.

There are 100 Singers on the Royal Opera list, including Ji-Min Park, Hanna Hipp, Christophoros Stamboglis, ZhengZhong Zhou, Ekaterina Siurina and Placido Domingo (all clearly British, except Hanna). There are 20 conductors on the list, such as: John Eliot Gardiner, Yves Abel and Colin Davis.  The Royal Opera Chorus has 56 members under the direction of Renato Balsadonna. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House is a full size symphony orchestra with (for goodness' sake) a Cor Anglais player: Alan Garner, who is, by the way, the ONLY Cor Anglais player AND the Section Principal. Go for it, Alan!! And, finally, the technical staff has a full office group AND A Senior Costume Supervisor AND a Head of Hats and Jewellery (Janet Steiner) AND a Head Armorer (Robert Barham) AND a Flys Manager (Andy Collett). They must have magnificent New Year's parties.

The Program Notes has A Quick Guide to RIGOLETTO.
POLITICAL DYSTOPIA: David McVicar's production of RIGOLETTO reveals unflinchingly the corruption at the heart of the court of Mantua. Rigoletto is the Court Jester and his appearance is inspired by a grotesque insect, and the lavishly-clothed courtiers and Duke happily engage in brutal orgies and later cruelly taunt both Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda.
A PROVOCATIVE SUBJECT: RIGOLETTO is based on the controversial play LE ROI S'AMUSE by Victor Hugo which was banned from the French stage for nearly 50 years.
GENESIS AND PREMIERE: Verdi began work on the opera in 1850 and the premiere was on 11March 1851. Verdi described it as his best opera, even though he wrote some 10 after it.
The Program concludes: "We hope the soaring, beautiful lines of Verdi's music will not only make your hearts swell, but also your tears run in an intense evening of emotional workout."

So, high expectations, right? I mean, the lovely, grand Opera House AND John Eliot Gardner as conductor AND Ekateria Siurina, the lovely Russian soprano as Gilda. She was the only "name" I recognized in the cast to be honest. She was born in Ekaterinburg and studied in Moscow. Ekaterina has sung the role of Gilda many times, in Berlin and Paris recently for example. But, she is a world-famous soloist and it was exciting to watch and listen to her in RIGOLETTO.

The story of RIGOLETTO has many political overtones, since it was based on the controversial Victor Hugo novel. Basically, it tells of an "evil" and sarcastic Court Jester who makes fun of everyone and even goes so far as to ridicule a Count Ceprano, whose wife is the "forced" mistress of the Duke of Mantua. This cruelty is spun back on Rigoletto himself, because he has been hiding his lovely daughter, Gilda, from public view. He is afraid that the Duke will force himself on her and so he keeps her locked in his dirty house, far away from public view. Of course, the Duke discovers the beautiful girl and seduces her by lying that he is a poor student. She falls in love. When the truth is revealed to Rigoletto, the action builds up to the murder of Gilda, who has disguised herself as a boy in order to spy on her "love", the Duke. Thus, Rigoletto is served a dinner of his own making. A tragic end to Gilda's life and to Rigoletto's happiness.

We left the opera transfixed by the singing and the acting. Although the stage is immense and the set was a huge, frightening wall of steel, it was the intimate scenes and duets that caught us.  The famous La Donna Mobile aria was superb. The opera was a grand experience. We walked back slowly from Covent Garden to Rupert Street and had our usual late dinner of bread and cheese.