Rigoletto

Verdi is my all-time favourite opera composer, and for many reasons starting with the amazing music Rigoletto is definitely up there in my top 5 Verdis alongside La Traviata, Don Carlo, Aida and Otello(Il Trovatore and La Forza Del Destino I also love). This is a great Rigoletto, not as good as the 1982 Jean Pierre Ponnelle film, the David McVicar production or the 2008 performance with Lucic, Florez, Zeppenfeld and Damrau but definitely worth watching.

The disappointments are few. The picture and sound quality are generally acceptable, if fuzzy in the picture and the sound having some distracting hissing noise occasionally. But the biggest disappointment was Vincenzo La Scola, the singing is ringing and beautiful, but as the Duke of Mantua he is too stolid and nowhere near cynical enough.

However, the costumes and sets are elegant and atmospherically lit. The camera work is focused enough too, and of the staging the opening scene was more efficiently done than exciting but the scenes between Nucci and Anderson are tender, the meeting between Rigoletto and Sparafucile is appropriately intense as is the climatic trio and Cortigiani is wonderful, contrasting the darker and more poignant sides of Rigoletto perfectly.

Orchestral playing is lush for the Quartet, Parmi Veder Le Lagrime Caro Nomme and the duets between Rigoletto and Gilda and powerful for Cortigiani, the climatic trio and the La Maledizione. Bruno Bartoletti shows a gift for musicianship and drama if occasionally needing more lustre like at the start.

La Scola aside, the singing is great, with Leo Nucci superb as Rigoletto, malevolent yet very moving. June Anderson gives one of her more involved performances too, the singing is lovely and technically accomplished and the performance is tender with some girlish naivety. Franco De Grandis right from his dark clothing to his resonant basso is a sinister Sparafucile, and Viorica Cortez is suitably seductive as Maddalena.

Overall, great. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox