The one night only performance of

Verdi's

Rigoletto

Sunday 20 July 2008
In the grounds of Loyton Lodge

The New Devon Opera's production of

Rigoletto

Guiseppi Verdi

Principals:

Debra Morley

Debra Morley, soprano, Gilda

("OPERA" Magazine)

Sempre Verdi at the Purcell Room

"Debra Morley sang a touching Gilda, the notes true and secure throughout the range, and in the closing ensemble from Falstaff she made an exquisite Nannetta, floating her top notes with ease and grace."

Debra studied at Cardiff University before being awarded numerous prizes to study at the Bonn Opera and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and was awarded the prestigious Madeline Finden Memorial Award.

She has appeared with many companies including the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, London Opera Players, Crystal Clear Opera, Opera Della Luna, New Devon Opera, Opera Interludes and Pavilion Opera with whom she toured the UK, Europe and Japan, and roles performed include Amina ( La Sonnambula ), Leila ( Les Pêcheurs de Perles ), Micaela ( Carmen ), Adina ( L'Elisir d'amore ), Lucia ( Lucia di Lammermoor ), Mme Herz and Mme Silberklang ( Der Schauspieldirektor ), Susanna ( Le Nozze di Figaro ), Die Königin der Nacht ( Die Zauberflöte ), Fiordilligi ( Cosi fan tutte ), Konstanze and Blonde ( Die Entführung aus dem Serail ), Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia ( Les Contes d'Hoffmann ), Berta ( Il Barbiere di Siviglia ), Adele ( Die Fledermaus ), Tebaldo ( Don Carlos ), Gilda ( Rigoletto ), Nanetta ( Falstaff ), Oscar ( Un Ballo in Maschera ) and Violetta ( La Traviata ).

Recordings include Kayser's Christmas Cantata for Guild Music, original compositions for De Wolfe Music Ltd and BBC Radio 3.

Debra also has a busy concert and oratorio career, and oratorio performances have included: Bach's Magnificat, St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion , Beethoven's Missa Solemnis , Britten's War Requiem , Carissimi's Jephte , Faure's Requiem , Handel's Messiah, Samson, Judas Maccabaeus, and Solomon , Haydn's Harmoniemesse, The Creation and The Seasons , Mendelssohn's Elijah , Mozart Mass in C Minor , and Requiem , Orff's Carmina Burana , Pergolesi's Stabat Mater , Purcell's Come Ye Sons of Art , Schutz' The Christmas Story ,Salieri's Requiem, Thiman's The Last Supper , Tippett's A Child of Our Time , Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music , Verdi's Requiem and Vivaldi's Gloria .

Future performances include Tatyana in Tschaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, performances of Mendolssohn's Elijah, Handel's Messiah and Bach St. John Passion, as well as song recitals and concert appearances throughout the UK. She is a frequent soloist with the Scarborough Spa Orchestra with whom she has recently made recordings for Brian Kay's Light Programme on BBC Radio 3.

Katrina Waters

Katrina Waters, Mezzo Soprano

Australian born Katrina Waters graduated with Distinction in 2004 from the Royal College of Music's Benjamin Britten International Opera School, where she studied with Lillian Watson. Katrinas studies were supported by an ABRSM International Scholarship, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and the Madeleine Finden Trust. She took her initial studies at the National Institute of the Arts (Canberra School of Music). Katrina is continuing her studies with Enid Hartle.

Highlights of 2006 included Meg Page Falstaff for the Lyrique-en-Mer Festival de Belle-Ile and Orlovsky Die Fledermaus for Opera Box. In 2005 Katrinas roles included Florence Pike Albert Herring for the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Aldeburgh and Moppet/Goose Paul Bunyan at the Dartington Summer School, where in 2003 she played Bianca The Rape of Lucretia. Since leaving the RCM Katrina has also played Foresters Wife/Owl Cunning Little Vixen for British Youth Opera, Mrs Grose Turn of the Screw for Cambridge Opera Society and Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro for Kings Opera.

Whilst studying at the RCM, Katrina played Mre Marie Dialogues des Carmlites, Third Lady Die Zauberflte, Erenice in Handels Sosarme and Mrs Grose Turn of the Screw. Other roles include Dorabella Cosi fan Tutte and Nancy Albert Herring. In November 2004, Katrina took part in masterclasses with David Syrus, singing excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier and Werther, singing Octavian and Charlotte respectively.

Concert highlights for 2006 included Elgars Sea Pictures, Rossini's Petite Messe Solemnelle and the Haydn Nelson Mass . Other concert highlights include Mahler's Kinderttenlieder conducted by Nicolette Fraillon in Canberra and performing at the Sydney Opera House with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra conducted by Johannes Fritzsch for the finals of the Australian Singing Competition, Marianne Mathy. Katrinas oratorio repertoire includes Bach's St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Mozart's Requiem and Missa Brevis K192 and Vivaldi's Gloria and Magnificat.

James Heath, Tenor, The Duke of Mantua

James Heath, Tenor, was born in Surrey, England and studied Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Technical College in Guildford, Surrey. He spent most of his teenage years and early twenties playing Drums and Singing in rock bands before deciding to change direction and move into Rock musicals, then Operetta and Grand Opera.

He has worked with such companies as, Opera North, Scottish Opera, English National Opera, Pavilion Opera, Garsington Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, English Festival Opera, London City Opera, Carl Rosa Opera, Opera Project, Opera Omnibus, Longborough Festival Opera and The D'oyly Carte Opera Co with whom he has also recorded.

Some of his Operatic Roles Include, Pinkerton (Madam Butterfly), Rodolfo (La Boheme), Cavaradossi (Tosca), The Duke (Rigoletto), Manrico (Il Trovatore), Macduff (Macbeth), Pedrillo (Il Seraglio), 1 st Armed Man (Magic Flute), Alfredo (La Traviata), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Rodriguez (Don Quixote), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Ferrando (Cosi Fan Tutte), Nadir (The Pearl Fishers) and Camille (The Merry Widow)

James has toured the U.S.A with London City Opera in association with Columbia Artists performing Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly and performed the role of The Duke in Rigoletto in Tokyo with Pavilion Opera. He has also performed the role of Ralph Rackstraw for the D'oyly Carte Opera Co.

James has also performed the role of Rodolfo in La Boheme for Scottish Opera on their "Scottish Opera go Round" tour and was subsequently invited back to revive the role for their "Scottish Opera on Tour" production.

James is in great demand on the concert platform, performing recitals and concerts in such countries as Holland, Japan, The United States of America, Belgium, France, Tunisia, Hungary, Austria, Greece, Switzerland, Lanzarote, Italy, The United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Recently James has performed the roles of The Duke in Rigoletto at The Longborough Festival and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for The Opera Project and has also performed the role of Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow for Opera UK and he has recently played the role of Cavaradossi in Tosca for Opus 1 music Ltd.

James Hancock, Baritone, Rigoletto

James was born in Melbourne and began his studies with the great Italian baritone Afro Poli and later furthered his studies with Andrew Field and Audrey Langford. He studied at the Victorian College of the Arts where he received a Bachelor of Music and sang Figaro ( Le Nozze ) and Guglielmo. He was a Victoria State Opera Young Artist where he sang di Luna, il frate (Don Carlos). Other roles he has performed include Germont, Rigoletto, Sharpless and Figaro (Barbiere).

He was awarded the Opera Foundation Australia German Operatic Award which gave him a contract with Bhnen der Stadt Kln where he sang the Herald ( Otello ) and Zweite Geharnischter under James Conlon. He was also awarded the American Institute of Musical Studies Award, Graz; Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarship 1999; and a Bayreuth Bursary. The Tait Memorial Trust provided the financial support to enable James to study with Alberto Remedios CBE and he was given a two year grant by the Australian Musical Foundation, London.

Companies he has worked for include Pocket Opera Nrnberg, Longborough Festival, Abbey Opera and Opera Australia, Covent Garden, Bath Festivals, Cambridge University Opera Society, UCL Opera.

Concert repertoire includes: Beethoven 9; Verdi Requiem; Dvorak Stabat Mater; Messiah; Pilgrims Progress; Creation; Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; Elijah and Christmas Oratorio.

Recital work includes: Winterreise; Die Schne Mllerin; and Dichterliebe for the Melbourne Festival, St. James Piccadilly and Covent Garden Festival.

He recently finished a tour singing Conte di Luna (Trovatore) with Pavilion Opera and sang Simon Boccanegra for OperaUK in October 2006. Late this year he sings Kothner with Edinburgh Opera.

Paul Goodwin-Groen, Bass, Sparafucile

American Bass Paul Goodwin-Groen , labeled as "an artist to be watched," has been recognized for his striking stage presence and rich tones. He graduated from Wheaton College with a BA in English Literature, went on to achieve an MFA in Acting from Brandeis University, and continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and the Britten-Pears School of Advanced Musical Studies.

He was later invited to participate in Oratorio Master Classes with Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Ian Partridge, and Ann Murray and won a study grant in Italy from the Ezio Pinza Council for American Singers of Opera.

Mr Goodwin-Groen has performed the roles of Leporello in DON GIOVANNI, the title role in DON PASQUALE, Colline LA BOHEME, Sarastro DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, Don Alfonso COSI FAN TUTTE, Zuniga CARMEN, Don Basilio IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA , Mr. Olsen STREET SCENE, Caspar DER FREISCHÜTZ, Don Gomez L'HEURE ESPAGNOLE, Iago ERNANI, Baron Douphol LA TRAVIATA, Simone GIANNI SCHICCHI, and Bottom A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (for the 50 th Anniversary performances at the Aldeburgh Festival) . Also active on the concert stage, he has performed Bach's ST. JOHN PASSION and CANATA No 36, Handel's MESSIAH, and Schubert's MASS IN G MINOR.

In the Fall of 2005, Mr Goodwin-Groen made his debut with Theater Hof in Germany as Fafner DAS RHEINGOLD and now permanently resides in the UK. He recently made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Guccio GIANNI SCHICCHI and has returned to the house for the Royal Ballet's production of THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS .

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The Background to the Opera, Sarah Lenton writes:

Hunchbacks

In the autumn of 1830 Victor Hugo bought himself a large bottle of ink, locked away his jacket (so he would not be tempted to go out) and sat down to write The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The novel came out the next year and got terrible reviews which, luckily for Hugo, the public totally ignored. Indeed the book was so successful that Hugo realised there was money in hunchbacks and, a year later, he created another one.
This was Triboulet, the king's jester in the play, Le Roi s'amuse (The King amuses himself). Unfortunately, the king in the title mostly amused himself as a rapist, and Hugo got another set of bad reviews. More importantly, the actual French King had nearly been assassinated a couple of days before and the authorities were not amused by a play that showed a King Behaving Badly; straight after the first night the police stepped in and banned the show.
It stayed banned in France for fifty years. However, during that time, Triboulet became very well known in Europe, not in Hugo's play, but in an Italian opera– and not under his own name, but as 'Rigoletto'.
Triboulet's fortunes (and name) changed in 1850 when Guiseppe Verdi, stuck for an opera to put on in Venice, had an inspiration. He wrote to his librettist, Francesco Piave: "I was going over several subjects when Le Roi s'amuse came into my mind like a flash of lightning, and I said – 'Yes, by God, that would be a winner!'"
Verdi was right; Rigoletto (as the opera came to be called) was a winner and has never been out of the repertory since.

A violent society
Le Roi s'amuse had been set in France, at the time of Francis I, but in
rewriting the show for Italy Verdi found he had to make some changes. 1848 had been a year of revolution all over Europe. Kingdoms had tottered and authority was jittery; nobody was going to allow a depraved king to be the central character of an opera. Every theatre that put on Rigoletto made the same demand, the king must be turned into a duke and the opera set in an obscure bit of the past. In Venice the opera was called Rigoletto and set in 16th-century Mantua, in Naples it became Clara di Perth (Scotland was a distant and glamorous place for the Italians), while Bologna and Rome saw the show as Viscardello.

However one thing never changed – the atmosphere. The opera describes a closed society ruled by one man. Everything depends on him, everybody takes their tone from him and, as he is depraved, the whole society is rotten. Mantua (or wherever) is a place dominated by violence and fear. There is only one honest man in the show, Sparafucile, a foreigner – and he is a hit man.

The Story

Party time
The opera starts with a sombre theme in the brass and woodwind. This is the'curse' theme; you hear it more and more as the opera develops, but here, at the beginning, you forget it immediately as the curtain rises on a noisy party. The 'Duke' is drinking down at the front of the stage.
He is boasting about a pretty girl he's followed home from Mass, but the entrance of Ceprano and his wife distracts him. Ceprano's wife is extremely attractive and the Duke swings into his first aria, 'Every woman is equally lovely.' The easy tune gives us his character: pleasure-loving, shallow and cynical.

The joker
Ceprano realises that the Duke is taking an interest in his wife and, though he can't do much about it, he is furious as he hears Rigoletto encouraging the boss's fancy. Rigoletto is a hunchback and clearly a joker but his jokes are merely malicious. Here he tells the Duke to 'eliminate' Ceprano if he gets in the way. Ceprano moves across the stage, to mutter threats of vengeance in (comparative) safety, and is joined by the others. They all hate Rigoletto.
To their delight they realise they have a weapon to hand. Marullo has followed Rigoletto home and found that he's keeping a woman. The others are amazed (and disgusted) to think the hunchback has a lover, and decide to kidnap her.

The curse
The dance band strikes up and the party is just about to get going, when a bass voice is heard outside, demanding to see the Duke. This is Monterone (a rival) who enters slowly and impressively and denounces the Duke for having seduced his daughter. Nobody is particularly impressed, except Rigoletto, who sends the old man up. Suddenly Monterone turns, and in a magnificent outburst, curses both him and the Duke.
The Duke's only response is to order his arrest, but Rigoletto (to our surprise) is horrified. Monterone is marched off stage, to the jeers of the chorus: "You dared to provoke us, your hopes are all through, Your curse will be fatal to noone but you."

The hit man
Dark-voiced clarinets, bassoons and lower strings set the scene; it is night and Rigoletto is walking home, still unnerved by Monterone's curse. A sinister figure emerges from the shadows and approaches the hunchback. His name is Sparafucile and he is accompanied by ominous sounds from the orchestra – muted cello and double bass – but his conversation (given its subject matter) is surprisingly matter of fact. Does Rigoletto need his services? He is an assassin, and he's noticed that Rigoletto has a rival. Clearly he has seen somebody lurking round Rigoletto's house. Rigoletto is not interested. Instead he asks Sparafucile how he conducts his business. Sparafucile says that he gets half the money, in cash, before a hit – the rest later. He can strike in public or down at his bar; there he has an attractive sister whom he uses as a decoy.

Rigoletto alone
Rigoletto puts him on hold and dismisses him. Alone he breaks into a bitter meditation on his life; he is just like Sparafucile: he kills men with his tongue, the hit man, Sparafucile, kills with his dagger. Rigoletto's solo is in recitative, that is the musical line follows the ordinary patterns of speech, but it always seems about to break into melody and, as he opens his gate, the music brightens. "Here," he says, "I am a changed man... "

Gilda
A sudden burst from the orchestra brings on the heroine, Gilda, and we
realise at once that she is not his mistress, but his daughter. They sing the first of their three duets. There is one in each act, and in each one Verdi describes their relationship with immense tenderness. However, you will notice an imbalance. Rigoletto's one redeeming feature is his love for his daughter, but it is a love that is almost an obsession. Gilda is aware of this and, though she loves her father, she gently pushes him back.
We discover from their dialogue that she has only just come up from the country, that she is kept close at home – only leaving to go to Mass – and that she knows neither her family name, nor her own mother. Rigoletto recalls his dead wife, the angel who loved him in spite of his deformity, but he is harassed by the idea that somebody has seen Gilda. He questions her, has anybody followed her home from Mass? No, says Gilda – though she confesses in an aside that she is lying. Rigoletto begs their attendant, Giovanna, to guard the girl carefully when, hearing a noise, he runs out to check the street.

The 'student'
As he opens the gate to his house the Duke, disguised as a student, slips in. Rigoletto is right to be worried; we now discover that Gilda is the girl that the Duke has seen at Mass and that she has innocently encouraged him. Giovanna, much less innocently, accepts a bribe, and leaves the two of them together. The Duke tells Gilda that he is a student, Gualtier Malde, and that he loves her. He is interrupted by the sound of Ceprano and his men surrounding the house and makes a swift exit. Left alone, Gilda sings her aria "Dearest name of my first love" which she barely has time to finish before the ruffians close in.

The kidnap
The rest of the act is taken up with her kidnap; a difficult moment to stage. The chorus enter singing a nervous staccato chorus, but you can't help thinking, there are 20 of those guys, and one girl, what are they worried about?
Rigoletto blunders into the ones guarding the street. They fool him into thinking they are abducting Ceprano's wife (who appears to live next door). They give him a mask and get him to hold the ladder for them, and it is not until he hears the cries of Gilda offstage that he realises something has gone wrong. He tears off the mask to discover it contains a blindfold as well and rushes into his house. When he re-appears he is speechless with horror. All he can say is "The old man cursed me!" before he faints.

The rape
With all the main characters in place the opera moves swiftly through the next two acts. Gilda is brought to the Duke's place where he rapes her, her father being forcibly restrained in an outer room. One of the gangsters, Marullo, says almost involuntarily, "Poor little Rigoletto" and indeed the hunchback's humiliation is painful to watch. He begs the gangsters to let him rescue the girl, but it is not until he reveals that she is his daughter that he gets a reaction.

Father and daughter
Gilda is pushed on stage and the chorus allow themselves to be ordered away by Rigoletto, who suddenly grows in moral authority and dignity. Father and daughter are alone and reach each other in another extended duet. Gilda tells him the whole sorry tale as Rigoletto comforts her. They are interrupted by Monterone, pacing through the Bar, under guard (and presumably about to be assassinated). He has the full orchestra accompanying him (as usual) and reflects bitterly that his curse has proved useless. "Old man, you are mistaken," cries Rigoletto, "you shall be revenged!" He picks up a gun and the act ends with a furious duet; Rigoletto swearing to have vengeance and Gilda revealing that, in spite of everything, she still loves the Duke.

The waterfront
The last act takes us to a poverty stricken waterfront and Sparafucile's Bar. Gilda and Rigoletto enter, barely able to talk to each other. "You love him?" says Rigoletto, "Always" replies Gilda. Rigoletto insists that she approach the bar – to see just what sort of man her lover is.
At this moment, the Duke enters and calls for some wine.

Flirtation
Now for the the opera's hit number, "Women abandon us." The refrain, "What is a woman, Why should men care?" tells Gilda exactly what sort of man her lover is and the entrance of Sparafucile's sister (Maddalena) shortly afterwards, completes the good work.

The deal
As the Duke flirts with the girl Sparafucile slips out and asks Rigoletto if he wants the Duke killed now, (Sparafucile does not know who his victim is, he still thinks of him as Rigoletto's rival). Rigoletto says he'll give orders later. Sparafucile slides away and the scene is set for one of the greatest moments in Rigoletto - the Quartet.

The quartet
The quartet opens with the Duke singing solo, "If you want a faithful lover." As the other voices join in you will hear that everybody's music is different. The Duke's solo is ardent and exaggerated (after all he doesn't mean it), while Maddalena's line chatters and laughs as she repulses him. Gilda expresses her pain in short breathless phrases but, as the quartet develops, we hear her voice rising over the others as she realises she is still in love. Rigoletto, thinking only of vengeance, stays firmly down in the bass.

The set up
Sparafucile returns and Rigoletto gives him half the money to kill the Duke, Sparafucile says he'll put the body in a sack and tip it in the river, but Rigoletto says, no, he wants to do that himself and exits. He tells Gilda to disguise herself in male costume so that she can leave town safely. Meanwhile things are moving. The weather has turned stormy and the Duke has retired to bed. Maddalena, who has a soft spot for a handsome man, begs her brother to spare him and Gilda (dressed as a man) creeps near the bar to listen in.

The murder
Sparafucile is offended at the thought of cheating a client but agrees that if somebody turns up before midnight, he'll kill him instead. (Rigoletto is unlikely to look in the sack.) Gilda promptly knocks at the door. As she does so the storm reaches its height and we can just hear the Duke singing "Women abandon us" up in his room. Maddalena lets Gilda in and, as the thunder cracks, Sparafucile knifes her.

Self sacrifice
Gilda's action is prompted by sheer love. She is the only person in the opera who is not tainted by evil atmosphere of Mantua and who knows that, outside, there is a freer, saner, world. Unfortunately, the only means of escape for her is death. Rigoletto appears for the body of his victim. Sparafucile wheels it in, in a sack and, to our horror, Rigoletto gloats over the corpse. His fiendish delight comes to an abrupt halt as he hears the Duke singing inside the house. He opens the sack.

The curse
There he finds his daughter. She is dying and she and her father sing a last duet. Gilda leads us away from her sordid death as she sings of Heaven, and of joining her mother. Flutes and high violins accompany her, while Rigoletto sings brokenly, "Oh, do not die…" But of course he cannot save her and, as she dies, he falls on the body, crying, "The old man cursed me!" There has been no way out of the box – the Duke has won.

With acknowledgment to Sarah Lenton and the  Budleigh Salterton Festival of Music and the Arts