RIGOLETTO – REVIEW OF 2026 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN, PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden has revived the 2021 production by Oliver Mears of Verdi’s Rigoletto, a favourite vehicle for opera houses around the world. As a result, both the opera and the jester have been seen in some unlikely places. Even a moderate operaphile could have sat through productions set in a Las Vegas Casino, a high-rise apartment building in New York and in a circus, to mention a few that come to mind.

The current revival is replacing the 2001 staging by David McVicar which was in a class of its own. When I reviewed that production, I wrote that the opening scene resembled an orgy. We saw a disheveled woman running across the stage with breasts exposed, clutching her clothes. We know that she had just been raped. The courtiers of the Duke of Mantua, sexual predators, chase women, grab them sexually and simulate coitus and act like predatory animals that is frightful and abhorrent. There was also a naked man. 

Director Mears takes a far more civilized approach to the operatic chestnut and the result is a highly enjoyable and refined production. The set by Simon Lima Holdsworth emphasizes dark tones, and the presence of lust and evil in the Court of Mantua is unmistakable. We see a large copy of Titian's Venus of Urbino, showing a naked woman lying languidly on a bed and the suggested violent Rape of Europa. In the latter, Zeus disguised as a bull abducts and then rapes a young woman.

In this production, we see Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda in a well-lit bedroom wearing night clothes before she is abducted and violated. Her presence in her bedroom is the only pleasant scene in the opera before the despicable courtiers abduct her. The beautiful duet with her father takes place in the darker tones of the stage.

George Petean as Rigoletto and Aida Garifullina as Gilda in 

Oliver Mears' Rigoletto, The Royal Opera ©2026 Marc Brenner

Mears has a lot of help from the superb cast in this marvelous production. Baritone George Petean as Rigoletto goes through a gamut of emotions. He ridicules the courtiers mercilessly and is an unsympathetic character trying to produce laughter for the amoral  and despicable duke. We see him and hear his sonorous voice in his scene with his beloved Gilda. And finally, we see the vengeful Rigoletto who pays Sparafucile to assassinate the Duke. Rigoletto is physically and psychologically deformed and his love of his daughter is his redeeming feature.

He is cursed by Count Monterone (baritone Blaise Malaba) and it arouses terror in him that runs thematically and musically throughout the opera. He decides to have the Duke killed and gets the services of  Sparafucile (bass William Thomas) who is professional, efficient and devoid of emotion in his job. He is frightful. We see all these situations and emotions in Rigoletto’s life in Petean’s splendid performance.

The lovely and innocent Gilda is sung by soprano Aida Garifullina. We first see Gilda through the curtains in her bedroom. She is in or around her bed in a beautiful room without singing a note. The scene is an addition by Mears. She is innocent and naïve with a loving father. She goes to church where she has seen a handsome young man who tells her he is a poor student. She sings “Caro nome” the beautiful aria inspired by his name. It is an expression of love, goodness and purity that Garifullina delivers with passion and poignancy that she holds onto throughout the performance.

The poor student that Gilda has fallen in love with is the lecherous and narcissistic Duke of Mantua. Tenor Ivan Ayon Rivas has the vocal and physical equipment for the role from his lascivious conduct at court to his description of women in “La dona e mobile” when visiting  a brothel at the end of the opera. Rivas sings with poise, assurance and gusto.  Women are toys to be played with and tossed out.

Veteran conductor Mark Elder led the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in a superb  performance of the score in a richly thought out and outstanding production of Verdi’s classic.

This is a solid and outstanding production that does not need outlandish effects like a casino or an apartment building, even an orgy.
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Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi with libretto by Francesco Maria Piave continues with some cast changes until April 23, 2026, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. www.roh.org.uk

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto