RIGOLETTO – VERDI
Presented on Apr 8, 10, 16, 18 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Aldo Protti – Rigoletto
Renata Ongaro – Gilda
Ermanno Lorenzi – Duke
Ferruccio Mazzoli – Sparafucile
Renato Spagli – Monterone
Valeria Escalar – Maddalena
Giuseppe Morelli – Conductor
Bruno Nofri – Producer
One of the biggest talking points of the season was undoubtedly the Dublin debut by Italian baritone Aldo Protti. The power of his voice surprised chorus members like Tom and John Carney and Dick Hanrahan. Another was heard to ask, ‘Do you think Protti’s voice is too big for the Gaiety?’ The answer was ‘no’ of course but that season he did manage to electrify audiences; indeed, one critic was to comment, ‘Signor Protti’s performance was so electrifying that whenever he was not on the stage the opera seemed to sag.’ If the voice lacked polish, it lacked little else and it coped effortlessly with Verdi’s music. It was the kind of voice that appealed to Colonel O’Kelly and produced an exciting sound that tended to rouse audiences. To O’Kelly, Verdi must excite, stimulate and be musically rewarding, so he always welcomed what he liked to describe as ‘a Verdi voice’ and he knew that Italy had more than its share. Renata Ongaro was making her Dublin debut as Gilda and arrived with an impressive record. The summer before she had scored a personal success at Arena di Verona as Gilda and since then had recorded “Lucia di Lammermoor”. Her Rigoletto at Verona had been none other than Aldo Protti. She did not disappoint her Dublin audiences and, if anything, emerged as one of the young stars of the season. Except for Ermanno Lorenzi’s rather bland Duke of Mantua, it was regarded as a splendid Rigoletto. So a season that had begun with rumours in the newspapers that it might have to be cancelled because of under-funding turned out to be successful after all in most respects. Yet some questions were being asked about the society’s precarious financial position and these were not fully answered in a piece in the opera programme by Colonel O’ Kelly, headed, ‘CAN WE CONTINUE?’.
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 