LA DONNA E MERAVIGLIOSO

Willi's Wine Bar Paris poster - Rigoletto



We went to the Sunday matinee performance of Rigoletto yesterday. Wow! What a stunning performance.
We all know how good the opera is with very memorable tunes, high passion and intrigue but what NZ Opera did with it is world class.

This is not a review of the performance, other more musically capable people can do that, but from a layman's perspective the singing, acting, lighting, direction and the setting were all fantastic. Style is the best word to describe it.

NZ Opera poster - Rigoletto

I'm turning 60 in August and Her Indoors was going to take me to Oz to see an opera in Sydney. I looked up the offerings - Aida which we have seen before in Verona and The Pearl Fishers which we have seen in Auckland - both very very different in execution and both very good. We have been to Sydney Opera House before and Melbourne was going to show Carmen (again) so I suggested Rigoletto which neither of us had seen before. We usually go to NZ Opera performances though as even if they don't have the scale of US and European performances they usually have an edge to them, an interesting interpretation and 'no. 8 wire' design flair. Rigoletto was no different, except, it was a cut above a lot of others we've seen.

What I also like about New Zealand opera is that it is unpretentious. Yes, there are a few twats who come along all done up in furs and tails but refreshingly a lot of them are nutters. The corporate invitees are usually dullards who wheel out the black-tie outfit that they wore to the last Murray Halberg sports dinner but as most CEO's and Managing Directors are ex accountants they generally pass unnoticed. In New Zealand we can comfortably sit between  the guy in jeans and old sports shoes (who probably knows more about the opera than anyone else in the auditorium) and the Remuera matron dressed to the nines who is hell bent on spending her wayward ex-husband's fortune.

One of the most recognised songs in Rigoletto is La Donna e Mobile, the philandering Duke's duplicitous lament about woman's fickleness or inconstancy. Lovely tune and 30 years ago it would have resonated in me a lot more. Now, and for the last wonderful 24 years living with Her Indoors it doesn't register. She treated me to this memorable performance and afterwards we went to our favourite wine bar (Crowne Plaza Hotel) for a glass of that great Deutz Rose before home.

Why the Willi's wine bar poster?

Well, I have been there a couple of times and, like the Universal Bar in Adelaide used to do, commissioned and sold interesting posters from good artists. The Rigoletto one being among them.