London's Opera Holland Park in 2024 – Seen and Heard International seenandheard-international.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from seenandheard-international.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Cecilia Stinton's new production of Rigoletto for Opera Holland Park updates its setting from Renaissance Mantua to the Bullingdon Club in the 1920s. And, while I was a little uncertain about this device at first – how would the dark power plays pan out, the roles of Duke and Jester make sense – it soon became clear that it was going to work. The Duke is still, well, a Duke and his jester becomes a veteran of the Great War, medals pinned to his chest, with a gammy leg and, wearing a bowler hat, presumably the college porter. The Bullingdon boys half drown a new boy in an absurd initiation rite, the opening party is full of cricket whites and rowers' blazers and the music begins as a jazzed-up version of Verdi played on a scratchy 78. Rigoletto has more than a touch of grand guignol and it has to be said that some of this is lost in its translation to a more modern era. When Monterone lays his curse on Rigoletto, for instance, it is hard to grasp why this makes him so fear
Bullying, sexism, corruption, initiation ordeals and debauched behaviour. No, it’s not another government inquiry into the antics of the elite, but Opera Holland Park kicking off the 2023 season by way of a new and thought-provoking production of Rigoletto.
Despite an ailing Rigoletto there is much to relish at Opera Holland Park – Seen and Heard International seenandheard-international.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from seenandheard-international.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.