Baritone Todd Thomas recalls the last time he was in rehearsal with Florida Grand Opera. It was in March of 2020, and he was preparing for his title role in “Rigoletto” at FGO’s rehearsal studios in Doral.
The company’s general director and CEO remembers it, too.
(uiatalent.com)
Todd Thomas has performed in the role of "Rigoletto" more than 30 times.
“We were set to open at the end of March and we were just getting ready to move to onstage rehearsals at the Arsht Center when everything collapsed,” said Susan T. Danis, referring to when COVID-19 put the brakes on the production only weeks before it was to play four performances in Miami and two in Fort Lauderdale.
Just shy of exactly two years later, FGO will finally open “Rigoletto” with four performances at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts beginning March 12. At the end of March, the show moves to Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts, where it will play two performances.
Verdi based his opera on Victor Hugo’s play “Le roi s’amuse” (“The King Amuses Himself”), which was banned by the French government. It was performed just once after its premiere in Paris in 1832 before it was declared immoral because of its disrespectful portrayal of royalty as corrupt.
Verdi’s opera found a different fate, premiering in 1851 and opening to great acclaim. This will be FGO’s tenth time staging “Rigoletto.”
“We’ve presented it no less than once or twice a decade,” Danis said, with FGO’s first performance of Verdi’s work at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in 1948, when the company was known as the Greater Miami Opera. “Rigoletto” was last performed by FGO in 2012.
Thomas has performed in the role of Rigoletto more than 30 times.
“I’ve been doing this part for more than 20 years,” he said from his home near Philadelphia.
(Manitoba Opera)
Famed Baritone Todd Thomas in a scene from "Rigoletto" at the Manitoba Opera in Canada.
And although this will be the first time that he’s singing the role with FGO, it isn’t’ the first time Thomas has appeared with the company. In 2014, he made his FGO debut in “Tosca” and that same year performed in “Madama Butterfly.” In 2017, he came back to FGO to perform in Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” (“Un ballo in maschera”).
Danis says to see Thomas in the role is to see one of the true Verdi baritones on stage today. This past October, he starred in a production in Milwaukee. A year before that he performed in a baseball stadium-based production in Tulsa, Okla. That production was the first time an opera company had staged a production in front of a live audience in the United States since March of 2020.
The park’s Jumbotron projected the subtitles in English and Thomas says he saw himself two-stories high.
“When I turned to see my likeness that big hovering over me,” he said, “it was frightening.”
Thomas and the cast were also featured on trading cards that were given out, which described the characters and singers’ operatic “stats.” Rather than the hunchbacked court jester as he is portrayed in the classic presentation, Thomas was a mascot who wore a lion’s head in the Tulsa Opera outdoor production.
He returns to the classic interpretation of the role for FGO’s production.
“He’ll be a colorful jester and a hunchback with Todd wearing a prosthetic,” Danis said, referring to the costumes for FGO’s production, which are from Sarasota Opera.
(Zendarski for FGO)
Michael Fabiano as the Duke in a scene with another cast member in the 2011 FGO production of "Rigoletto." This is FGO’s tenth time staging “Rigoletto.”
“Rigoletto” follows the conquests of the Duke, who fashions himself a ladies man and chases after every woman he sees. He’s recently set his sights on a young lady he notices on her way to church, and she has taken a fancy to him, too. The trouble is, Gilda is the court jester Rigoletto’s daughter, and her overprotective father will do anything to keep her away from the despicable ruler.
Thomas, a father of four, two of whom are girls, says that playing the role at various stages of his life has had a profound influence on him.
“Both [roles] influence each other,” he said.
He recalled how a conductor once worked with him to get to the soul of the character by saying, “Think of your own daughter. Think of Lydia.” At that time, Lydia was about 16, near the same age as Gilda. But Thomas said he hasn’t been overprotective of his daughters.
If You Go
“Rigoletto and Gilda’s relationship is dysfunctional. He keeps her under lock and key physically in this hut and she can’t get out. That is not good parenting,” said Thomas. But “you can’t fault him. There are days I remember that I didn’t want to let my two daughters out of the house.”
What’s interesting singing the role now, he says, is that he is performing opposite a woman who is young enough to be his daughter.
“20 years ago, those who sang Gilda opposite me, well, we were almost the same age,” Thomas said.
Canadian soprano Sharleen Joynt makes her FGO debut as Gilda. Television audiences may remember the Ottawa native as a contestant on the 18th season of “The Bachelor” in 2014.
Danis and Thomas both agree that audiences will be taken in by FGO’s production of “Rigoletto” on many levels.
“I’ve done more Verdi operas than anything else,” Thomas said. “And there’s a reason why ‘Rigoletto’ has lasted so long … not only is the music wonderful, but he painstakingly pays attention to the words. He was always sending it back to his librettist (Francesco Maria Piave) saying, ‘rewrite this.’”
Danis says audiences will be surprised by how much of the score is familiar.
“I can think of four different pieces in ‘Rigoletto’ that people are going to recognize,” she said.
La donna è mobile,” “Rigoletto’s” best-known aria, is the most identifiable. It has become a pop culture go-to, having been used in two Doritos Super Bowl ads; in television ads for tomato sauce, frozen pizza, olive oil and pasta; and on an episode of “The Simpsons.” It was also included on the soundtrack for the Grand Theft Auto III video game.
“Our audience members will say, ‘Oh, that’s what this is from?’ There’s a comfort level that comes with that and I think that is important,” said Danis.