Victoria Warivonchik

The Metropolitan Opera: Rigoletto

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.