Interesting Rigoletto Development: Wilbur, La Scala, Parterre

This is an update from my past Rigoletto post a few days ago.

Do we really want to pay big money to see a massive black screen and Ikea furniture on stage for 3 hours?

UPDATE: I posted this article on the Met facebook page. It has since been taken down from their page. More interesting is that Wilbur has taken down his page and "retired." And to make things more interesting, Parterre Blog has "a hunch" that Bondy won't be directing Rigoletto at the Met anymore. Lot's of interesting coincidences all in one.


Obviously the Met does not want people to know their future season plans ahead of schedule. It would kill the hype of revealing the next season. But more importantly, is this production still in the plans? George Gagnidze's schedule certainly indicates that he will be singing Rigoletto at the Met next year, so there is no doubt about that. The question is will we get the Rigoletto production next year or at all? According to La Scala website and page on Rigoletto, their new production (the same one from Vienna) is also a co-production with the Met (Vienna just opened it, La Scala opens it in 2011-12, which is the perfect time for the Met to do likewise). However, Parterre dedicated a short post to mentioning the fact that an American director would the new man in charge of Rigoletto. It could be just a hunch, but makes for an interesting development none the less. 


Wilbur's surprising "retirement" out of the blue makes me wonder about the Met's involvement. Obviously he was on to something that was not supposed to be published. 


In any case, this is an interesting development. To be honest, I would be ESTATIC if the Met decided not to go along with the Bondy Rigoletto. He already destroyed Tosca with his unfocused/chaotic production (as a result my family, which subscribes yearly to the Met will not see Tosca until we get something better to look at). An American director could prove to bring something just as bad or worse, but in past experiences, it seems that they have a stronger sense of what the Met public not only expects, but demands from its productions. Unfortunately, at the moment, La Scala has the most convincing position/statement of all. 


Stay tuned...