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Kostis Protopapas, artistic director of Tulsa Opera, spoke at the Opera Guild's "Insights" lecture Thursday night in anticipation of the upcoming staging of Rigoletto.
Even for people who have seen Rigoletto many times, his lecture was useful: full of ideas and connections.
I won't try to repeat the full hour of his talk here. His discussion of motifs and forms was particularly interesting, and particularly beyond my ability to represent accurately. But one sidebar -- the story of how Verdi altered his plot to make it politically acceptable -- was interesting and within the scope of a blog.
When Verdi originally proposed to produce an opera based on Victor Hugo's La Roi S'amuse, a tale of revenge gone wrong in the court of a libidinous king of France, it was rejected by the censors.
Venice at that time was under the control of Austria, and the plot was subversive because it showed royalty in an unflattering light and involved a plot to assassinate a king, which the Habsburgs were pretty touchy about. They also didn't like all the sex, especially involving a king.
Protopapas read a portion of the rejection notice, which referred to the proposed script at a "disgusting triviality."
Verdi, however, was in love with the central character, which would become Rigoletto. He said he was "a character worthy of Shakespeare," which is high praise from anyone, but especially from the man who wrote Otello, MacBeth and Falstaff.
So, Verdi edited the plot to get around the censor's objections.
The opera was reset. He moved it from France to Mantua. He changed Rigoletto's nemesis from a king, to a duke (thus dealing with the issues of royal assassination and royal bawdiness). He changed all the character's names. And he took out a suggestive scene between Gilda and the Duke.
"Verdi's genius and sense of proportion are such that you don't miss" those elements, Protopapas said.
It's worth noting that the next opera "Insight" lecture, just before the production of Don Quichotte will feature University of Tulsa Professor Joe Kestner, who also cracks open operas wonderfully with social and political background.
Also, speaking of Shakespeare, the English Speaking Union's annual Shakespeare contest for high school actors is set for 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Hardesty Regional Library. It's free and open to the public.
