The Metropolitan Opera: Rigoletto (2022)
One of opera’s grimmest tragedies received a powerful new production during the 2021–22 season when director Bartlett Sher unveiled his Weimar-era staging of Verdi’s Rigoletto. In this performance, recorded as part of the company’s Live in HD series of cinema transmissions, commanding American baritone Quinn Kelsey gives a searing portrayal of the title character, a deformed court jester determined to protect the virtue of his daughter, Gilda, sung by radiant soprano Rosa Feola. His debauched employer, the Duke of Mantua, is tenor Piotr Beczała, with dynamic young maestro Daniele Rustioni on the podium to lead a cast that also features bass Andrea Mastroni as the assassin Sparafucile and mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan as Maddalena.
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Reviews
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.