Santiago Ballerini / Reviews

Stefano de Peppo’s Sergeant Sulpice was delivered with honesty and a golden baritone. Sulpice’s meddling, which helps bring himself, Marie, and Tonio together for a rousing trio during the middle of the final act, was presented masterfully, with de Peppo’s amazing sense of comedy helping him stand his own alongside the two love-birds for whom the story is told.

The production was very much a ‘period’ one, dark reflecting the night time, with an airfield like building on one side and a three storey ‘operations centre’ on the other, and with a fence between separating the officials from the public. Projections added to the stormy mood. Il prigioniero (The prisoner), on the other hand, was given a more modern production, even though the setting is much earlier – in the second half of the 16th century. The work, which dates from 1948, portrays a tortured prisoner who is given the means to escape, only to wonder if he might not find his liberty in death at the stake. The connection in this case is rather by association, with the events under the military rule of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The setting used was the same as Volo di notte, although less obviously relevant in this context, and with the addition of a large rotating central cube representing the prisoner’s cell and torture room as the focus of events. Likewise similar and appropriately dark lighting. But there also was the odd addition of acrobatic dancers, supposedly representative of angels of death of that military dictatorship, but ultimately a distraction rather than an addition. Both conveyed well the events and feelings being portrayed with the differences between the two sufficient to well distinguish them. This was also due in no small measure to the two casts. In Volo di notte particularly notable were Daniela Tabernig as the missing airman’s increasingly desperate wife and Victor Torres – unfortunately lost under the orchestra at times – as the insistent but ultimately responsible Riviere. Adrian Mastrangelo well portrayed the Mother in Il prigioniero and Leonardo Estevez was an outstanding prisoner. Christian Baldini showed an affinity with Dallapiccola’s scores, with their varying and complex textures and the chorus responded well.

It doesn't matter whether “Rigoletto” is a father-daughter story, an intrigue of political decay, a tale of unrequited love or a costumed affair with beautiful music, Giuseppe Verdi's 1851 masterpiece doesn't grow old. The varied elements came together almost seamlessly Friday night at downtown's Municipal Auditorium in the San Antonio Opera's final production of its 2009-10 season. Talent flowed from the stage at every turn of this emotionally complex opera. A great deal of the credit should go to Sam Mungo's well-paced stage direction and Enrique Patrón de Rueda's baton. The pit orchestra absolutely glowed and glittered throughout. The cast members won the evening, however, as they ignited their characters through the inflections of their singing instead of relying on acting, the costumes or the set, although all of those added to the opera's success. The most striking stage presence came from baritone Daniel Sutin as the court's jester and title character. His singing effectively articulated his ardent overprotectiveness, as his daughter's father, and his obsession with a curse placed upon him in the first scene.Soprano Audrey Elizabeth Luna, as Rigoletto's daughter, Gilda, delivered the best singing. Luna hit all her high notes in her big aria, “Caro nome,” which launches the opera's doomed love affair. Tenor Michael Wade Lee, as the duke of Mantua, executed the role of the despicable villain to the hilt. The story wouldn't work without the duke's shameless attitude toward women. Yet, Lee effortlessly tossed off, wonderfully, what may be opera's most famous aria, “La donna è mobile,” without making it sound like a cliché. Minor characters held up their end. The assassin Sparafucile, sung by Matthew Trevino, and Sparafucile's overly senuous sister, Maddalena, portrayed by Dana Beth Miller, stood out in the stormy final act.