Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
July 6, 2018

Elijah Moshinsky’s well-loved La Dolce Vita-inspired production of Rigoletto for Opera Australia, first seen in 1991, is by now almost as much of a warhorse as the opera itself – but a fine cast led by Slovak baritone Dalibor Jenis as Verdi’s hunchbacked jester demonstrates both still have plenty of currency.

When Opera Australia’s 2018 season was announced, legendary Italian baritone Leo Nucci was set to make his OA debut, singing three performances in a revival of Roger Hodgman’s 2014 production, but when Nucci withdrew, Jenis’ run was extended and the Moshinsky (revived by Hugh Halliday) swapped in.

RigolettoDalibor Jenis, Gennadi Dubinsky and chorus in Opera Australia’s Rigoletto. Photos © Prudence Upton

From Rigoletto’s claustrophobic dressing room to the opulent, portrait strung palace – where the jester makes his living needling courtiers and facilitating the Duke of Mantua’s romantic acquisitions – Michael Yeargan’s spectacular revolving dollhouse of a set keeps the action moving with swift almost filmic transitions. Against this backdrop, Moshinsky’s Mantua is one of brutal excess, in which women are treated as property to be jealously guarded, stolen and quarreled over –...