Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi English National Opera, The Coliseum, London,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

“Jonathan Miller’s 1950’s Little Italy New York setting still works a treat.”

As the curtain rises on the clean blond veneer of a New York bar crowded with mafiosi in dark glasses, it’s good to see that Jonathan Miller’s genius idea of re-locating Verdi’s tragedy from its original setting in Renaissance Mantua to New York’s ‘Little Italy’ still looks like working for the new generation now seeing it for the first time.

Premiered in 1982, when the production won an Olivier Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Opera’, its 14th revival, with revival director Elaine Tyler-Hall, continues the dramatic high standard. Rigoletto, in this version one-armed rather than hump-backed, has made many enemies through his acid-tongued wit but relies on his master, the Duke, to protect him. However, when the gangsters kidnap the woman they assume to be Rigoletto’s mistress and take her to the Duke, a notorious libertine, the relationship is changed utterly.

Vendetta is now Rigoletto’s only purpose to which he remains firm, unheeding of his daughter Gilda’s plea to save the life of the man she had fallen for when the Duke had earlier courted her in the guise of a poor student. The relationship between Weston Hurt’s protective father Rigoletto and Robyn Allegra Parton’s secretly defiant daughter is beautifully realised. It’s the first time I’ve heard the British lyric-coloratura soprano, who now performs throughout Europe - she is outstandingly good, well matched by Hurt’s dramatic baritone.

On to the third act and the dilapidated riverside bar of the professional hit-man Sparafucile (William Hurt) to which Yongzhao Yu’s libidinous Duke has been lured by promise of a date with Sparafucile’s sister Maddalena (Amy Holyland). The famous top C solo ‘La donna è mobile’ on which many a tenor’s reputation rests rings out as the Duke thumps the top of the juke box - a bit harsh in tone perhaps but adequate for a place where music isn’t the owner’s prime business. Gilda remains resolutely in love even when witnessing the Duke seducing another woman. So to flashes of lightning and a violent storm of autumn leaves, Rigoletto returns to find the curse laid upon him by another wronged father of a dishonoured daughter has been fulfilled.

In repertoire to 21 November and highly recommended.

Conductor: Richard Farnes; Director: Jonathan Miller; Revival director: Elaine Tyler-Hall; Designers: Patrick Robertson and Rosemary Vercoe; Lighting designer: Robert Bryan; Revival lighting designer: Ian Jackson-French; Assistant conductor: William Cole; Chorus director: Matthew Quinn; Production pictures: