Few companies give you such an eyeful as Opera North, or indeed so fulsomely take over a theatre, what with their populous casts, mighty sets and that big orchestra in the pit.
Blake Denson, as Rigoletto, seems emblematic of the whole caboodle.
If your mental picture of a jester - and a sly and conniving one at that - is of a lean and needy fellow living on his wits, then prepare to be confounded.
In Verdi’s original, he’s a hunchback. In this production by Femi Elufowoju jr, he stands out in a different way.
The American baritone, making his Opera North debut, is what in football terms would be called a big unit, with the kind of powerful bearing that normally commands respect.
He does, though, have the voice to match – wonderfully deep, resonant and expressive, so you hang on every word and note.
In Verdi’s opera, based on a play by Victor Hugo, there’s much sexual jiggery-pokery of the kind that still (evidently) goes on but which nowadays is liable to end badly, with culprits brought to book (eventually if not immediately, you’d like to think).
Rigoletto, good servant that he is, has helped his boss, the Duke of Mantua, in his pursuit of women, including the wives of courtiers, while also mocking their husbands.
Such behaviour tends to result in enemies and party-pooping the riotously flamboyant opening scene is the Count Monterone who has the temerity to accuse the pair of abusing his daughter.
Before being hauled off to prison, he puts a curse on the pair of them – and Rigoletto is rattled; as, frankly, I would be by a curse delivered so potently by a Monterone embodied by Sir Willard White.
The great bass-baritone, who had the role when this production was last performed here in 2022, recently turned 80 but I can vouch that the voice and presence are undimmed. Before this man, even a Denson-type Rigoletto might justly quiver.
The story will be familiar to many. In a nutshell, though, it takes a nasty – or nastier – turn when the duke’s hangers-on abduct the young woman he’s lately had his eye on.
Gleefully thinking her to be Rigoletto’s jealously guarded mistress (what a hoot!), she is actually his daughter, Gilda… and things get worse when she falls for the young ‘student’ who is in fact the duke.
With the appearance of an assassin (Callum Thorpe, another brilliant bass, as knife-wielding Sparafucile), you know this will not end well – especially since he has a comely sister, Maddalena (Alyona Abramova), who has also taken a shine to the duke.
There are several cast changes from night to night so Rigoletto will be sung by South African Siphe Kwani on Thursday night (Nov 5) and Gilda at the same performance will be his compatriot, Yolisa Ngwexana.
But on Wednesday it was American soprano Jasmine Habersham wringing the emotion from Gilda’s heartrending part in this sorry tale, and doing so with great conviction.
All performances, from principals and Chorus, were well up to the mark on opening night, not least that of Mexican tenor Leonardo Sánchez (it’ll be American Luke Norvell on Nov 5) as the Duke of Mantua.
Funny how an aria like La donna è mobile gets to be assigned to a character like the dirty duke. Inevitably, since it’s one of opera’s most famously catchy tunes, it functions literally as a showstopper, Sánchez earning his applause.
Another disconnect is between this production’s opening and closing scenes, the former’s white-wigged courtiers redolent of the 18th Century and the latter’s seaside seediness, characterised by a wrecked car, like something from Brighton Rock.
But for all its wonderful qualities, when did opera ever make total sense?
Opera North are here until Saturday, November 7 (it’s all Rigoletto apart from Saturday’s lone performance of Eugene Onegin). Tickets from the Theatre Royal box office.