Rigoletto - Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 11/10/2010

This was the first time I've seen Rigoletto in the theatre, despite having been a fan of the opera for several years (it was, in fact, the opera that changed my mind about the genre - see Disc of the Day #11). I did have a ticket to one of the early performances of this production a few years ago but was ill and couldn't attend. As you might imagine I was pretty excited by 7.25 last night.

The first thing to say is that I love the staging. The fact that the Duke's palace spins round to become Rigoletto's house is wonderfully simple yet illuminating. Like many Verdi operas (Aida is a prime example of this) much of the tension comes from a character placed in a situation that demands two different things of him. Whether this is public figure/private figure (Aida) or father/court member (Rigoletto), the opposing pulls created make the drama. So here we have the palace, all hard, flat lines offset against the broken lines of Rigoletto's home. Simple, wonderful, enlightening.

Then we have the cast. Dimitri Hvorostovsky has the same wonderful quality I hear when I listen to Jessye Norman - that is I always get the sense there's another gear there if it's needed. Singing Rigoletto this in no small miracle.

I must admit that I wasn't bowled over by Wookyung Kim's Duke - I couldn't help feeling there was a bit of...well...welly missing. Howwever, I absolutely loved Patrizia Ciofi as Gilda - on a night where the performance was dedicated to the memory of Joan Sutherland it must have been difficult to sing this role but sing it she did and brilliantly.

Special mention should also go to Raymond Aceto and Daniela Innamorati as Sparafucile and Maddalena, both of whom were excellent.

The cast has a couple of variations over the run:

Conductor

Dan Ettinger
Christopher Willis

Duke of Mantua

Wookyung Kim

Rigoletto

Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Paolo Gavanelli

Gilda

Patrizia Ciofi
Ekaterina Sadovnikova

Sparafucile

Raymond Aceto

Maddalena

Daniela Innamorati

Having waited a while to see Rigoletto I didn't want to wait long to see it again so I'm going again, with a friend who knows nothing about opera, next week. I'm seeing the same cast which is, in part, a shame as I'd like to see the other lot. However, if last night again is what I'm getting then bring it on.