Bartlett Sher’s staging of Rigoletto, which debuted at the Staatsoper Berlin in 2019 and premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on New Year’s Eve 2021, is back in the house with a superb cast. Sher updates the action from 16th-century Mantua to early 1920s Weimar Republic, but apart from a scrim displaying a detail from George Grosz’ Metropolis and an Art Deco ballroom in the opening scene, the handsome production bears little relation to its purported inspiration. Michael Yeargan’s efficient set design – stationed on a turntable which rotates to reveal Rigoletto’s modest home, Sparafucile’s sparsely appointed inn, and other locations – accommodates scene changes smoothly and revival stage director Sara Erde keeps the action moving.
As the hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto, who encourages the libertine Duke of Mantua in his amatory exploits only to have his beloved daughter, Gilda, abducted and seduced by him, Quinn Kelsey delivered the most poignant and powerful performance of the evening. With his commanding stage presence and warm, full-bodied baritone, he adroitly managed the dramatic and vocal challenges of the role. Among the evening’s highlights was his heartbreaking aria, “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata”, when he falls to his knees and begs the Duke’s courtiers to return his beloved daughter, but it was in his duets with Nadine Sierra’s Gilda, where he reveals his true nature as a loving and caring father, that his singing and acting were at their most eloquent and persuasive.
Sierra was outstanding, in excellent voice and completely convincing as she evoked all the naïveté and vulnerability in her character. Her “Caro nome” was beautifully sung, with radiant high notes, impeccable coloratura and sensitive phrasing. Her acting and singing were at their finest in the heart-wrenching scene in Act 2 where, alone with her distraught father, she tells him of the Duke’s courtship and her abduction and then confesses her shame.
As the unscrupulous Duke of Mantua, Stephen Costello was more of a courtly and calculating cad than a true villain. With his detached and somewhat stiff stage presence, his restrained characterization came off as less than completely captivating. But his singing could not be faulted. With his elegant and accurate tenor, he dispatched his showpiece arias, “Questa o quella” and “La donna è mobile”, with ease, but his best singing was in “É il sol dell’anima”, the impassioned duet in which he introduces himself to Gilda as a penniless student and makes his feelings known to her.
Making a Met role debut as the professional assassin Sparafucile, hired by Rigoletto to kill the Duke, Soloman Howard was especially well-cast. With his sinister demeanor and dark, sonorous bass, he was a decidedly menacing presence. As his flirtatious sister Maddalena, who is in love with the Duke despite his degeneracy and duplicity, J’nai Bridges brought physical seductiveness and vocal elegance to the role. Her opulent mezzo was highly pleasing in “Bella figlia dell’amore”, the famous Act 3 quartet.
The smaller parts were all well cast. Standout performances came from baritone Jordan Shanahan, raging and vocally powerful in a house debut as Monterone, the elderly nobleman who puts his curse on Rigoletto, and baritone Jeongcheol Cha who, as leader of the Duke’s henchmen, displayed a powerful voice and brutish pleasure in ridiculing Rigoletto.
The male choristers, rehearsed by newly appointed Chorus Director Tilman Michael, sounded wonderfully secure and articulate, especially where the courtiers recount their abduction of Gilda. In the pit, Pier Giorgio Morandi elicited energetic and characterful playing from the splendid Met Orchestra, conveying all the atmosphere and color in Verdi’s magnificent score.
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