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When Verdi was asked which of his operas was his favourite he replied Rigoletto. The premiere in 1851 was a huge success with the public and has remained so ever since. Whenever ENO was strapped for cash and desperately in need of full houses it always revived Jonathan Miller’s Mafioso production which was first seen in 1982. 40 years on, conducted by Richard Farnes, it is as gripping as ever. Orchestra and chorus are in fine form. The opera has one of the best librettos. Verdi thought Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse might well be the greatest drama of his times and that the hunchbacked court jester was a creation worthy of Shakespeare. The final dramatic scene is one of the great scenes in all opera. The jester gloating over the murder of the Duke, who has seduced and raped his daughter, discovers that the Duke is still alive and that it is his daughter, who has been killed. The bond between Rigoletto and his daughter is firmly established by Weston Hurt and Robyn Allegra Parton and his grief is comparable to Lear’s grief at the death of Cordelia. Yongzhoo Yu is cast as The Duke. The updating to the 1950s suits the story. Rigoletto, the former court jester, is now a barman in a hotel run by the Mafia. Patrick Robertson and Rosemary Vercoe provide three outstanding atmospheric sets: a cocktail bar in a luxury hotel; a West Side Story tenement building; and a riverside bar in a dirty alley. The bar no longer looks as if it might have been painted by Edward Hopper; but Miller’s first-rate joke remains and La Donna e Mobile, being played on a jukebox and the jukebox having to be kick-started when it stalls, gets a big laugh. William Thomas is well cast as the professional assassin, Sparfucile, who has a hauntingly sinister melody. Patrick Alexander Keefe’s Marullo stands out in a crowded room by sheer presence. To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website.
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