House: San Francisco Opera
Conductor: Stephen Lord
Director: Harry Silverstien
Singers: Paolo Gavanelli as Rigoletto, Mary Dunleavy as Gilda, Giuseppe Gipali as the Duke and Greer Grimsley as Monterone.
Second opera of the season, the first one I actually got to see with
erinearl, and what a fantastic delightful affair it was. The setting is modelled like an abstract painting, the costumes are painfully old style like most Americans opera productions are, but the mix worked out really well (apart from the oddity of the naked women on stage in act 1). It was joyful to watch and fantastic to listen to.Mary Dunleavy as Gilda was fantastic despite the two rather bad misses (bad as in I heard them and cringed, but I have no idea who else heard them apart from me and
erinearl), her voice just did not go high enough. I guess credit to her for trying since a lot of singers would just skip and it didn't seem to affect her confidence afterwards very much.There where a few moments where I had my doubt on the interaction between the condutor/orchestra and actors, but they pulled together and delivered, I think partly helped by a really good choir.
Never seen an opera before in San Francisco? Go see Rigoletto and enjoy.
