The human voice is the greatest musical instrument. It alone can convey in a single musical line, for example fear and anger, or innocence and passion or lechery and the need for lasting love. With his deep understanding of this amazing vocal ability, Verdi strove for complex characterization where characters are human, virtuous and venal. Of course a successful production of Rigoletto need not demonstrate this as the score and story are so well known and dramatic in themselves. But a truly faithful Rigoletto will. This production of it delivers.

This is not a recorded version of a stage production with the annoying applause but filmed on location. It is therefore quite short, 117 minutes. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle delivers stunning visual effects from the Felliniesque erotic court of the Duke to the dark shadows of Rigoletto’s home and Sparafucille’s tavern. The design does not overshadow the opera as it often does in Zefferelli`s productions but rather enhances it. He astutely opts not for “a show” but “to show.”

The acting throughout is very good. It needs to be because Ponnelle chooses many extreme close-ups. Ingvar Wixell is a wonderful Rigoletto. He also plays Monterone. This touch serves as a metaphor for the whole performance. Although on the surface it is Monterone who delivers the curse, it is really the actions of each individual that ironically cause the tragedy. Shakespeare famously and poetically expressed this Aristotelian concept of tragedy in "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves..." Our sorrow for Rigoletto at the end is because Wixell convincingly shows us the hunchback`s complexity: a cruel jester who is at the same instance capable of the most tender emotions and whose actions are not a catalyst to the action but a cause. Edita Gruberova is also very good. She understands the unworldliness of the sheltered convent girl roused to passion by the young handsome suitor but devoted to her father. She is convincing in asking her father’s forgiveness while at the same time pleading mercy for her lover. Ferruccio Furlanetto’s Sparfucille is threatening, cunning, greedy and criminal. Luciano Pavarotti, here in his vocal prime, delivers an able performance of the Duke. Of course he wonderfully delivers the vocal pyrotechnical stuff Verdi demands but he can be consummately lyrical when required. For one of the first times I heard the tragic element in this lecher. His Don Juanism does not allow him to maintain any relationship although Gilda is the one who he ‘almost’ loves. That the inimitable orchestra and chorus are a complete partner to the action is due to the musicianship and intelligence of conductor Richard Chailly.

Having heard this performance, I look forward to re-visiting it. One leaves it touched and thinking. What more can one ask?

- Bill Riley