Oliver Mears’s production of Rigoletto is showing again at the Royal Opera House, with Simon Lima Holdsworth’s disturbing, stunning sets. It is a horribly disturbing story, in some ways the most upsetting opera in the canon; the pain increased by the stunning beauty of every single bar of music.
Rigoletto, the cynical, furious court jester who has a cruel word for everyone , nurses a secret. The equally cruel, cynical courtiers of the Duke of Mantua, hear that he visits a beautiful young woman , and conclude that - ugly and unpleasant as he is, that he has a mistress. They determine to kidnap her, and torment him with their knowedge…
And, of course, the secret is, that this Diogenes has a hidden love, all right, but not for a girlfriend. The love of his life is his daughter, Gilda
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In the days when ENO staged Jonathan Miller’s production, set in Mussolini’s Italy, we used to go quite often. One of the many things about it which wrings your guts
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