" Rigoletto " at the Wells
MUSIC
WHENEVER Rigoletto or La Traviata is revived, someone is sure to talk of " early Verdi." Actually Rigoletto is the seventeenth of his twenty-eight operas, and represents the first-fruit of his maturity. With it Verdi transformed himself at one stroke from a popular composer of Italian operas into an artist whose genius transcended the boundaries of nation- ality. Popular he remained, and Rigoletto was the foundation- stone of his popularity outside Italy. Indeed its very popu- larity has served to obscure the fact that it is the first complete example of a style whose development is the basis of Verdi's claim to be a great innovator as well as a great melodist.
It may seem odd that Rigoletto, to many the very archetype of old-fashioned opera, should be set up as an example of originality in design. The contemporary revolution in German opera associated with the name of Wagner—Lohengrin was first performed the year before Rigoletto—was so voluminously written up that musical historians have been inclined to overlook the less radical, but hardly less remarkable, change wrought by Verdi in Italian operatic conventions. This change, which becomes more marked in every opera after Rigoletto, was in the direction of a greater coherence and continuity in the music of an opera as a whole. Instead of being a series of set pieces, arias and ensembles, linked together by recitative, the whole opera tends to be written more and more in one continuous melodic style, in which aria and ensemble are gradually merged until in Falstaff it is impossible to separate a single piece of music from its context. In addition Verdi contrived to give a distinct individuality of musical style to his different subjects, so that, apart from a certain idiosyn- crasy that marks the music as Verdi's own, there is no excuse for confusing a passage from Rigoletto with one from the more heroic 11 Trovatore or the more lyrical La Traviata, any more than one would confuse an excerpt from Mozart's G minor Symphony with one from the Jupiter.
That Verdi was not unconscious of what he was doing is evident from his well-known description of Rigoletto as a series of duets. It is a description that might be applied with even greater accuracy to the last three acts of La Traviata, and it implies, in its context as a retort to a request for another air for Gilda, that the continuity of the music is of paramount importance. I was, therefore, surprised to find one good Verdian deprecating as snobbish the absence of applause at the end of the more popular solos during the perform- ance of the opera at Sadler's Wells last week. Applause at the end of " Caro nome " or "La donna e mobile" completely destroys the beautifully contrived passages whereby these airs are welded into the main structure of the opera. It was a great pleasure to hear these passages uninterrupted.
There was no lack of enthusiasm in the audience, which was large enough to fill every inch of standing-room as well as every seat. The performance certainly deserved this tribute, and perhaps the audience is to be congratulated on refraining from applause after the solos on grounds of equity as well as of art ; for it was precisely in these pieces, where great singing is called for, that the performance was weakest. The merit of the production is that it brings out the ensemble character of the
work and therefore its dramatic quality. For that we may willingly, in a performance at cheap prices, let some of the fireworks go. Professor Dent's new translation contributes largely to the result by making sense, by avoiding the usual solecisms and, above all, by being eminently singable.
Mr. Redvers Llewellyn's Rigoletto was admirably character- ised and exceptionally well sung. His voice is not always even in tone, but he rose splendidly to his opportunities in " Pad siamo " and " Corteggiani, vil ragazza," which indeed made the audience break for once its rule about applause. Miss Naylor was excellent in the duets and made as good a shot at " Caro nome " as we have any right to expect in these days. At any rate she kept this famous piece within the frame of the drama instead of making it a mere exhibition. Mr.
Francis Russell is a tenor and for that we may be thankful.
The production was good, and will be better when it is tightened up, as also will be the musical performance when Mr.
Braithwaite can give more urgency to the rhythms. A new light was, incidentally, shed upon the Duke's infidelities ; if that was his Duchess's portrait hanging opposite his own caricature, much may be forgiven him. DYNELEY HUSSEY.
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