Rigoletto, The Mysteries of the Theatre

...or, as the Operavision page more descriptively calls it, "Rigoletto for Children." It "makes the opera's more mature themes accessible to a young audience," apparently. Now, it's easy--and fun!--to just laugh at that idea, but hey, let's at least watch it and take it on its own terms. Why wouldn't we want to introduce opera to a young audience?

Still, it's hard not to be skeptical: what do you mean, "make its mature themes more accessible to a young audience?" Rigoletto is what it is: a story about a feckless duke who seduces his hunchback jester's daughter and the assassin that said jester hires to murder the duke who then bumps off his daughter instead. Is that appropriate for children? You tell me, but it's not clear to me how you could alter that to any substantial degree and have it be the same story.

Well, in fact, this production doesn't. It's exactly the same story, albeit fiercely abridged (barely more than an hour). Apparently what it's doing to make it accessible to children is to present it as a troupe of actors performing the opera. I...don't really understand how this is supposed to work, I have to admit. The story still has all its themes, and this doesn't seem to work as a distancing technique. Still, it is shorter for the social media age, and it features fun(?) activities: line drawings periodically appear over the action, some of them indicating that you're supposed to sing along (with karaoke-style text--it seems incredibly unlikely that any child will be able to do this without extensive preparation beforehand), dance around, put on masks, or even shake a rain stick, and JEEZ, how much special equipment do I NEED?  I cannot shake the suspicion that this may not actually be all that engaging for the young'uns.

The singers are really singers, albeit ones without a great deal of professional experience, if the internet is to be believed. The musical accompaniment is limited to a single piano (and a conductor--is this guy really needed with only one instrument?), which I didn't love--I found the whole thing kind of tinkly and a little annoying, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with making anything more accessible to anyone.

Maybe kids will like this? I don't know. I have my doubts, though. The "activities" feel notably half-assed, and while kids may have short attention spans, I think if they're interested in this story at all, they'd probably be just as interested in a full version--and even if not, I personally did not find this particular abridgment all that engaging. Obviously, I'm not in the target audience, I just tuned in out of curiosity, but nonetheless my word is final and none may disobey my terrible edicts.