Rigoletto

Synopsis

Rigoletto, the hunchbacked court jester wants revenge. His beloved daughter, Gilda, has been abducted and seduced by the Duke and he hires a hit-man to assassinate him. Tragedy prevails in Verdi's masterpiece of love, lust and betrayal. Based on Hugo's Le roi s'amuse. First performed at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851

Our Review:

19 October 2010

A grey, decaying stage is dominated by a skewed palazzo that rotates, Sean Kenny-style, to represent all Rigoletto’s locations in and around a single edifice. Designer Michael Vale’s Mantua is an expressionistic ruin slowly sinking into the mire, and the Duke’s Act One revels are a scene of shame and chaos a few steps from hell. Small wonder the miserable jester is so anxious to shield his daughter from any contact with his day job.

That said, the orgy in this fifth revival of David McVicar’s 2001 production could do with a tad more lead in its pencil. Shenanigans and dangly bits abound among the Duke’s party people, but Vale’s revolving stage is the nearest they’ll get to feeling the earth move. It doesn’t help that these rhubarbing debauchees gurgle like am-dram yokels, clearly unsure how to verbalise their wanton lust.

Rumpy-pumpy out of the way, though, the production settles into a wonderful evening of finely-etched performances and superb musicianship. The ...

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