This week we have selections from Rigoletto in English, presented by the English National Opera. The ENO is not self effacing about its place in the opera world. The mission of the company states that "ENO is creating the future of opera: presenting award-winning work that is new, exciting and surprising." They further state that the ENO is "committed to creating new audiences for opera through English language performances which are affordable and accessible to everyone. We provide unique opportunities and pathways for British singers, conductors, directors and designers".
The ENO was started at the Old Vic on the Waterloo Road in 1898 by Emma Cons to present opera and theater to the local people of that then tough area of London. Emily Con's niece Lilian Baylis came along to help, and later built up the theater and opera companies, and added a ballet. The theater wing split off eventually as the Royal Theater, and the ballet, as the Royal Ballet.
Baylis took her company from the Old Vic to the larger Sadler's Wells in the 1930's, and in 1968 the Opera company switched to the larger London Coliseum. The company became the ENO in 1974.
And they do do it all in English. This is pleasing to some, not so much to others. It is often difficult to make English words fit music written for another language, and it is easy to point out where it does not work, but the ENO looks to its mission to make performances "accessible to everyone." And within the context of their mission their productions can be very effective.
Tonight on the Lyric Stage we have a sample of their work, selections from Verdi's Rigoletto, with the English translation by James Fenton. Rigoletto, the vicious court jester, loses his daughter Gilda, the one thing he loves in life, to her misguided love for and devotion to his employer, the fickle and amoral Duke of Mantua, who deceives Gilda into loving him. Dramatic irony abounds, culminating when the assassin Rigoletto hires to kill the Duke instead kills Gilda, who sacrifices herself so that the Duke may live.
One critic has been so unkind as to call Gilda a "ninny", that even the madness of love is no excuse for her "dumb" decision to sacrifice her life to save the Duke, that loving not wisely but too well has its limits. But the music is glorious, and this all English cast from the ENO company singing in English gives the opera a wonderful performance.
John Rawnsley heads the cast as Rigoletto, Helen Field is Gilda, and Arthur Davies is the Duke of Mantua. Mark Elder conducts the ENO orchestra and chorus in this recording from 1984.
