A Message from Rigoletto Himself!

Todd Thomas writes:

Great to be back in Birmingham.

I am thrilled to be working again with Opera Birmingham. I hope to see many of the friends I met here last January when I was here for Butterfly and again last month at the Home for the Holidays concert.

Rigoletto is a very special opera for me for several reasons. Perhaps thought future blog entries I hopefully will be able to articulate why exactly. This is an opera that has been in my life for a very long time. I suppose at my age I can honestly say that about many operas actually.

I had heard actors often say that they "find" the core of a character when they are in the make up share and watch the transformation on their face. Others have said when the walk onto the set. For me finding the core of the character is a new process each time. The influence of a new conductor,and stage director as well as new actors in the ensemble influence my performance profoundly each time. The Rigoletto I will sing in Birmingham will be different than the one I sang in Winnipeg lasts season or any of the other  several different productions.

However, for me, I discover, once I walk  the shoes of a character I instantly find a large part of the "core" of Rigoletto.   While I hope that you will be fully invested in the story we will tell of the court jester, and will be fully transported our of the theater through the fabulous music, perhaps you will take a moment to look at my shoes. ( see photo)

These "hunchback shoes" were originally made for me for a production of I Pagliacci in Holland several seasons ago.  I was able to purchase the entire costume, knowing that I would get a lot of use from my hunchback shoes not only for Tonio but also for Rigoletto. Hopefully, from the picture you can see the right shoe is about 2 in hers taller than the left.  With this extra heel height I never need to "fake" the hunchback walk. 

After posting this pic in my FB page while packing for this engagement, a friend asked in disbelief, " you bring your own shoes and bauble?  You are so old school."  I suppose in many ways I am old school...I didn't tell him I also negotiated an entire Scarpia costume from a production of Tosca  I sang in Germany. (But that is another blog entry)

While generally, I am an inside-out actor, meaning I build character from what is going on in his soul, heart and mind and develop a physicality from that point,  the tormented father of Rigoletto is a man who is has reciprocal deformity of his soul and his body. By the end of the opera I hope you won't even see his deformity or his shoes but will be able to see his fully broken and shattered soul and heart.