The Veritable Verdi

Your music critic, Mark Swed, needs to be reminded that a critic’s job is more than being critical of everything. When a fine production like L.A. Opera’s “Rigoletto” and all the artists in it are torn to shreds, something is radically wrong with his ability to fairly judge opera (“Verdi’s in Movie Turnaround,” March 3). Everyone in the audience that I spoke to loved Bruce Beresford’s updated production.

RUTH PAVER

Culver City

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If the updated L.A. Opera production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” was good box office, I’m delighted. If it brought new fans into the hall who will return, I’m even happier. But at some point one must ask: When does a production cease to reflect the intentions of the composer and librettist? Further, if singers and players are required to honor these intentions, why should not the director, set designer and costumer?

At the performance I attended, the audience was laughing at the production, not always with it and certainly not in places intended by the work’s creators. The goofiness seen on stage almost made me forgive the musical cuts and phrases rearranged to suit a singer’s frayed vocal resources.

At what point does artistry suffer for the sake of bringing the audience along?--a question someone at the Los Angeles Opera must address. And it is the art that will last, not the silliness of the moment.

JEROME S. KLEINSASSER

Bakersfield