User Reviews

Rigoletto I have long considered one of Verdi's best operas. The magnificent music, with highlights too many to list, the complex character of Rigoletto whose one redeeming quality is the genuine love he has for his daughter and the gripping and moving story. I was thoroughly impressed with this Opera Australia production. My favourite Rigoletto? Not quite, the Ponnelle film is unequalled in my eyes. But it is one of the better productions of the opera in recent years, the Lehnhoff(Lucic-Damrau-Alvarez), Zurich(Nucci-Mula-Beczala) and McVicar(Gavanelli-Schaefer-Alvarez) productions are the same.

What struck me first was the costumes and sets. There is the fidelity to the opera, and everything looks so burnished in scale and sumptuous in colour. It was almost like stepping into one of the visually stunning , personal and nostalgic films of Federico Fellini. The obvious standout was the Duke of Mantua's palace, which is so authentic you would easily mistake it for the real thing. As well as that, Sparafucile's bar dwelling is appropriately seedy and foreboding. The video directing captures this dazzling spectacle perfectly with camera angles that were strongly reminiscent of David Lean or someone like that, while the staging never loses the story's intensity and poignancy. Elijah Moshinsky allows for his stage direction to have fidelity to the details and spirit of the opera while allowing his own style to it without showing signs of distaste.

Musically, it is superb. The orchestra play like angels, powerful when needed and the nuanced parts done with pathos and sensitivity. The chorus are animated, reacting very well to the drama, and vocally are beautifully balanced. Giovanni Reggioli's reading as conductor is one of elegance, taut energy and great discipline.

The performances are excellent on the whole. Alan Opie I have always liked, and I was really surprised by his Rigoletto. Having seen him in various Britten opera productions and working with him(in the chorus and he was soloist) on the recent recording of Delius's Mass of Life, I found him to be a revelation in the role. Rigoletto is by far the most difficult and complex of the Verdi baritone roles, and Opie doesn't show signs of being taxed. His voice is a sonorous, powerful instrument and he uses it likewise in the more malevolent and raging passages without resorting to pushing or shouting. Yet he allows for it to be more lyrical in his duets with Gilda. He is a gifted actor as well, there is great authority in sinister and moving measures in his characterisation and he never lets it lag.

Emma Matthews sings with nuances and beauty of tone as Gilda, with a great sense of the Bel Canto style. She does give Gilda a vulnerability and doesn't make her a ditz, though some of her melodramatic facial expressions may put some people off. Paul O'Neill occasionally sounds strained, and his acting in Questo O Quella lacks energy, but once the voice warms up it shows signs of radiance and used very musically. His acting gets stronger too, he has great zest in the quartet and has the pathos Parmi Veder Le Lagrime.

Onto the supporting cast. A standout was Gennadi Dubinsky's Monterone. This is surprising as Monterone is not the most exciting of roles, but Dubinsky's world-class showmanship really comes through. His curse and the hold he has over Rigoletto is genuinely threatening. Elizabeth transitions seamlessly from dowdy Giovanna to sexy Maddalena, and sings with a lovely firm sound. David Parkin's voice came across as more a bass-baritone rather a basso-profundo sort of bass, but one doesn't mind so much when he sings so resonantly and acts with such terrifying presence.

All in all, a great production. 9/10 Bethany Cox