La Maledizione, Hon

Charles T. Downey, Lyric Opera of Baltimore presents a worthwhile ‘Rigoletto’
Washington Post, May 20, 2013

Verdi, Rigoletto, D. Damrau, J. D. Flórez, Ž. Lučić, Semperoper Dresden, F. Luisi (Virgin, 2010) [READ REVIEW / YouTube]

The world celebrates the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth this October, but opera companies hardly need any encouragement to stage the Italian composer’s works. Lyric Opera of Baltimore’s staging of “Rigoletto,” heard on Friday night at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric, offered another chance to appreciate the mastery of Verdi’s first great achievement, given its premiere at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice in 1851.

This Baltimore production offered many excellent qualities, beginning with the powerful and emotionally intense performance of baritone Stephen Powell in the title role. Verdi’s masterful characterization of Rigoletto makes the viewer both dislike and sympathize with the spiteful court jester, and Powell captured both sides of this complex role. As the loathsome Duke of Mantua, tenor Bryan Hymel, a recent winner of both the Beverly Sills and Olivier awards, displayed a ringing top, if not always quite so much elegance at the bottom, and he also drew out the role’s hard-to-find sympathetic qualities.
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Verdi, Rigoletto
Lyric Opera of Baltimore
Patricia and Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric

SEE ALSO:
Tim Smith, Lyric Opera offers sterling cast in 'Rigoletto' (Baltimore Sun, May 19)

2008 production, Washington National Opera (plus second cast)