Rigoletto from Orange

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Mikko Franck - conductor
Charles Roubaud - director

Nadine Sierra - Gilda
Leo Nucci - Rigoletto
Celso Albelo - Il Ducca di Mantova
Stefan Kocán - Sparafucile
Marie-Ange Todorovitch - Maddalena

Host - Natalie Dessay who calls Nadine "formidable."

By modern opera standards this production of Rigoletto from Orange is very traditional, as long as you are happy with generic modern clothing which I no longer find that I mind.  The set is simple to make it blend in with the natural setting provided by this extremely well preserved Roman theater which is complete with stage.  Rigoletto wears a gold jacket while all the other guys wear black.

Those of us who saw him in Onegin love Stefan Kocán.  His Sparafucile works as a waiter at the Duke's party.  In his first scene he holds his low note while he walks across the wide stage.

Leo Nucci is Placido's age and performs more like a character actor.  I prefer a sung Rigoletto like Quinn Kelsey, but Leo is theatrically quite viable and moving.

I'm here for Nadine Sierra who comes in around 24 minutes into the opera.  She is really quite glorious and also gorgeous.  She does her cadenza lying on the stage.  Later when the action returns to the Duke's palace, they take a bis.

I love Rigoletto, and enjoyed this one very much.  Opera is everywhere now.  This is now available on medici.tv.

Here is a quote from Le Monde:

Sa voix au timbre pur, incisif et délicat, irradie de tendresse dans le médium et se couvre d’or dans les aigus qu’elle laisse flotter aux limites de l’audible. Le fameux « Caro nome » à la fin de l’acte I, cette rêverie amoureuse qui parle de sensualité, démultiplie la ligne ornementale en une envolée de notes parfaitement justes et calibrées, une ligne d’une musicalité raffinée. Dans l’abandon aux pulsions amoureuses, Nadine Sierra dévoile l’infinie tendresse d’une nature angélique, dans le temps suspendu d’un cœur qui tutoie les étoiles.

[Her voice with a pure, incisive and delicate tone radiates tenderness in the medium and is covered with gold in the treble that it lets float to the limits of the audible. The famous "Caro nome" at the end of Act I, this amorous reverie which speaks of sensuality, multiplies the ornamental line in a flight of perfectly accurate and calibrated notes, a line of refined musicality. In the abandonment to the love impulses, Nadine Sierra reveals the infinite tenderness of an angelic nature, in the suspended time of a heart that knows the stars.--Google Translate]