Amartuvshin Enkhbat’s Rigoletto conquers Covent Garden

In 2015, when Amartuvshin Enkhbat sang “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata” to the jury at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, I was one of many people astonished that he didn’t win the first prize. With Covid interfering with the progress of his career, it’s been a long wait to hear Enkhbat sing the title role of Rigoletto on a big stage. But last night at Covent Garden, the wait was over and it's been well worth it. I had high expectations and he surpassed them all.

At its fundamentals, this is a huge bear-growl of a voice, with power to burn and dark colours not often found in a baritone. But clear Italian diction shines through the darkness and when Enkhbat chooses to smooth things out, he does so with a seductive, velvety legato. Like many Verdi baritone roles, Rigoletto spends a lot of time around or above middle C, but the high tessitura holds no terrors for Enkhbat, whose impressive depth of timbre is maintained throughout: he’s even comfortably smooth in the snatches where Rigoletto parodies a high voice. But it’s not just the voice that impressed – Enkhbat delivered a classy acting performance, moving through Rigoletto’s mood swings and explosive changes of temper both vocally and physically, as credible in his interactions with the Duke and the courtiers as he was as a fond but overprotective and fatally authoritarian parent.

Pretty Yende provided the perfect foil as Gilda, combining brightness of timbre with excellent legato, good intelligibility and complete security of phrasing and intonation. It’s unfair to compare the acting performances of the two roles because Gilda is such a one-dimensional character by comparison, but Yende did better than many at contrasting the reality of an ordinary (if cocooned) young girl with Rigoletto’s deluded idea of her virginal purity. Gilda’s decision to sacrifice her own life for that of the libertine Duke is always difficult for the audience to accept, but Yende succeeded in making us feel that Gilda, at least, sincerely believes it to be her only option.

I struggled with Stefan Pop’s characterisation of the Duke. He was fine vocally: it’s a tenor with plenty of brightness and an attractive timbre. Indeed, the Act 3 quartet, with Enkhbat, Yende and Ramona Zaharia as an excellent Maddalena, was as good as I’ve ever heard it. But Pop ratcheted up the menace from the very beginning and maintained it throughout, which lost the point that the Duke is so dangerous because he is suavely attractive.

Gianluca Buratto as Sparafucile and Fabrizio Beggi as Monterone, gave us bass voices that were interesting and enjoyable, somewhat unusual and not dissimilar from each other. Both voices are clear and tightly focused throughout the range, with steel in the voice right the way down to the low notes, rather than the more usual gravelly depth or stentorian thunder.

Conducting Verdi for the first time at Covent Garden, Julia Jones was sure-footed in tempi and phrasing, allowing the music to move the action along in a way that felt completely natural, never rushed nor dragging. The storm in Act 3, with its lightning flashes portrayed by flute and piccolo, was convincing. Synchronisation between instruments and voices was generally good, with the interweaving of flute or oboe with Gilda’s voice particularly effective, although there was the odd lapse that we can hope will be eliminated as the run proceeds.

We commented extensively on Oliver Mears’ production in its first season, in September 2021 and February 2022 and I won’t repeat those comments. I will mention, however, that Mears does good well in highlighting the frequent shifts in power that are so characteristic in this opera. Rigoletto constantly veers between downtrodden and in control; his body language and the choreography of the courtiers signals those shifts with clarity. Overall, this feels like a staging that will last: it’s visually stylish (albeit rather on the side of being consistently dark) and has enough fresh ideas to be interesting without containing anything that’s going to be too controversial for traditionalists.

But the evening belonged to Enkhbat and Yende. Even if you’ve seen Rigoletto many times, this cast is worth catching.