The Verdi Project: Rigoletto

In which our composer creates a sensation and changes the world of opera, forever.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Tito Gobbi (with Renata Scotto) looking suitably demented in a scene from Rigoletto.

There are Verdi operas and then there are those that stand as immortal pillars of the repertory. It is the opinion of this writer that the greatest of these is Rigoletto, a shattering tragedy that has captured the imagination of the public since it first took the stage in Venice in 1850. Verdi's fifteenth opera changed the art form permanently, and established him as the most beloved composer in Italy.

Opera Review: The Passing of the Torch

The Met's Luisa Miller shows a company in transition.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Take my daughter, please: Sonya Yoncheva, Placido Domingo and Piotr Beczala in Luisa Miller.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera's revival of its 2001 production of Luisa Miller looks backwards and forwards at once. It features Placido Domingo singing the latest in a line of Verdi baritone roles that the aging tenor has used to extend his already distinguished career. (It was also supposed to reunite the singer with James Levine, but the conductor's firing due to repeated accusations of sexual misconduct by multiple parties spoiled that happy event.) It looks forward in that its two leads, Piotr Beczala and Sondra Yoncheva, represent the cutting edge of a new generation of opera singers that are having their well-deserved moment in the spotlight.

The Verdi Project: Nabucco

By the waters of Babylon, Verdi's legend begins.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Historic bas-relief of the Babylonian king Nebachudnezzar, hero of Verdi's third opera Nabucco.

Nabucco put Giuseppe Verdi on the map. The composer's third opera premiered in Milan in 1842. It was an absolute smash. Its success would not only alter Verdi's fortunes, but the popularity of its message and its famous chorus "Va, pensiero" may claim some credit for reshaping the political map of Italy. It was Verdi's music and the eventual rallying cry "Viva Verdi" (code for "Vittorio Emmanuel, Re d'Italia") that would help propel that collection of nation-states toward revolution and eventual political unity.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Il Trovatore

The Met revives Verdi's blood-and-thunder masterpiece with an invigorating cast.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Man with a plan: tenor Yonghoon Lee sings "Di quella pirra" in Act III of Il Trovatore.
Photo by 

 The ne plus ultra of potboiler plots, characters written larger than Marvel® super heroes, instantly catchy, hummable tunes and a history that includes one-time participation by the Marx Brothers (in A Night at the Opera). What's not to love about Il Trovatore?

Recordings Review: Dance 'Til He Drops

Claudio Abbado's classic Un Ballo in Maschera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The third in this survey of the La Scala Verdi recordings (and yes, it's wilfully out of order) is this excellent and mostly forgotten Un Ballo in Maschera, conducted with flair by the late Claudio Abbado.
Like Abbado's Aida (which was made around the same time with a lot of the same players) this Ballo was made at the very end of the analogue recording era, made in 1981 on the eve of the launch of the compact disc. And the warm, glowing sound of the violins and voices makes one regret all the problems that hit the recording industry because of that transition.

Recordings Review: Thinking Outside the Sack

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Rigoletto. 

by Paul J. Pelkonen

One had the feeling that the marketing department at DG weren't trying too hard to sell CDs with this cover,
which appeared on the initial 1980s pressing of this set. Image © Universal Classics. 

This 1964 La Scala recording of Rigoletto features the unusual choice of acclaimed German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role and Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik leading the proceedings. That sounded pretty strange when I first saw this set sitting on a shelf in a used CD store in Boston, but surprisingly it works.

Opera Review: The Fire This Time

The Metropolitan Opera revives Don Carlo.
 by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bass-off: King Philip (Ferrucio Furlanetto, right) pleads with the Grand Inquisitor (James Morris)
in Act IV of Verdi's Don Carlo. Photo by Ken Howard copyright 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.)

Giuseppe Verdi’s operas conquered his native Italy in the 19th century, He then set his sights on Paris, (the center of the operatic world at the time) as his next goal. Don Carlo (originally: Don Carlos) was his third and final attempt at French grand opera. Verdi adapted a play by Friedrich Schiller into a sprawling five-hour examination of the troubled Spanish royal family in the reign of King Philip II. 

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Ernani

This well-worn but classic Met production returns.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Soprano Angela Meade is Elvira in the Met's revival of Ernani.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera's ornate production of Verdi's Ernani returns with Francesco Meli in the title role and James Levine on the podium. Lovers of bel canto style will swoon at the return of Angela Meade in the leading role of Elvira. 

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Aida

The Met goes back to Egypt in search of box office gold.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Tomb raiders: Aida (Liudmila Monastyrska, l.) emotes as Amneris (Olga Boridina) glowers in the Met's

latest revival of Verdi's Aida. Photo by Marty Sohl © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

Aida is an opera that people see for the spectacle, and for the grand illusion of Egypt that is conjured by Verdi's imaginative use of the orchestra and martial themes. It is also an intimate love story set against this grand backdrop, with two girls (who both happen to be princesses) in love with the same guy.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Macbeth

The Met revives the Scottish tragedy (not Lucia) for Anna Netrebko. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A dame to kill for: a bewigged Anna Netrebko in Martin Kušej' Munich  Macbeth.
Photo © 2014 Bayerische Staatsoper.

The Metropolitan Opera is hoping that Giuseppe Verdi's operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's bloody tragedy will translate into good box office gold by casting Russian superstar Anna Netrebko in the key role of Lady Macbeth. The soprano recently sang the role in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

Happy Birthday, Maestro Verdi!

The composer turns 200.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

It's not every day a composer turns 200.

Today marks the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Verdi, whose long career and vast output make him the dean among Italian opera composers. So what are we celebrating here, apart from a number?

Verdi's body of work continues to have depth and resonance for the contemporary listener, who can choose from the composer's different career phases. Let's start with the vocal virtuosity and patriotic fervor of his early period, featuring oom-pa-pa rhythms and rousing choruses, music that shaped the conscience of a nation. It was his third opera Nabucco that caught the public's imagination, as the chorus Va, pensiero became an unofficial anthem of the Risorgimento movement that gripped Italy during Verdi's lifetime.

Recordings Review: And the Chorus Shall Lead Them

The Superconductor Verdi series rolls on with Nabucco.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Detail from the Ishtar Gate © 2013 The Pergamon Museum.

Like the weight and splendor of King Nebachudnezzar's massive Ishtar Gate (that guarded the entrance to Bablyon before winding up at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin) there's nothing subtle about Nabucco.

Verdi's third opera (and first smash hit) is a blood-and-thunder retelling of the Bablyonian captivity of the Old Testament. It opens with the sack of Jerusalem and the triumphat entrance of the Babylonian conqueror Nebachudnezzar. From there, the plot boils up a story of Nabucco's spiritual struggles with guilt as well as his fight for the throne with his psychotic daughter Abagaille. This is another Verdi collaboration with Temostocle Solera, who based the story on a French play and the events recounted in the Book of Daniel. This was Verdi's third opera to premiere at La Scala.

Opera Review: Crusading Tenor Busts Out

The Opera Orchestra of New York performs I Lombardi.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Tenor Michael Fabiano and soprano Angela Meade appeared together in
I Lombardi, but not in this PhotoShopped image.
Source photos from the artists' websites. Collage by the author.

The arrival of a great voice on the New York opera scene is no small matter. Three years ago, it was Angela Meade, whose performance in a Bel Canto at Caramoor performance of Bellini's Norma caught the attention of critics and aficionados. Last night, it was tenor Michael Fabbiano, who appeared with Ms. Meade in the Opera Orchestra of New York's concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi's I Lombardi.

Opera Review: Disposable Heroes

The Met revives Il Trovatore.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Cardboard hero: Gwyn Hughes Jones as Manrico
in the Met's revival of Il Trovatore.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

This season's revival of Verdi's Il Trovatore (seen Monday, October 8) is the first of seven Verdi productions at the Met this year, calculated around the celebration of Verdi's 200th birthday. A small detail (like the fact that Verdi turns 199 today) didn't stop the opera company from using the (2013) bicentennial as this year's marketing hook. Equally, not having a tenor up to the formidable task of Manrico didn't stop the show from going forward.

Gwyn Hughes Jones is a Welsh singer of some experience, a tenor in the spinto mold that is usually ideal for this type of Verdi part. But on Monday, Mr. Jones offered a bright, slightly nasal timbre that made Manrico an unwelcome presence for the first half of the opera. His unpleasant tone made the character--already something of a cardboard hero--difficult and unsympathetic. He fared better in Acts III and IV, singing the sometimes inaccessible high Cs at the end of Di quella pirra and merging smoothly into the ensembles that bring the last act to its violent climax.

The tenor's shortcomings were offset by by Carmen Giannattasio in the role of Leonora. This was her second appearance on the Met stage, and she brought grace and bel canto style to the character. Her sweet tone caressed the vocal line of "Tacea la notte" and she proved equally adept in the opera's fast cabalettas. Most impressive: the Act IV suicide monlogue, where Leonora resolves to marry the evil Count di Luna (Franco Vassallo) but not before drinking poison hidden in a ring.

Karita Mattila Drops the Ball

The Finnish diva cancels Verdi.
by Paul Pelkonen

Before TV and the Internet, this is what we'd sit around and watch when there was no opera.
Wood-burning stove courtesy of Fireplace Village.  

In the sport of baseball, the "hot stove league" is used to describe the sport's off-season, when fans would gather around said heating device in the depths of winter to discuss the personnel changes made by their favorite teams. Now, as the Met opera's off-season is from mid-May to late September (making stoves impractical) maybe we need a new phrase? "Dormant air conditioner?"

The Metropolitan Opera's 2011-2012 has been closed for five days now, and roster changes are already being made, affecting next season's slate of Verdi productions. According to a report on Parterre Box, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila has announced her withdrawal from the company's upcoming David Alden production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera. Ms. Mattila was scheduled to sing Amelia, the love interest of King Gustavo of Sweden (Marcélo Àlvarez).

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La Traviata

Natalie Dessay slips into the little red dress.
by Paul Pelkonen.

Lover boy: Matthew Polenzani returns as Alfredo Germont in the Met's revival La Traviata.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

Willy Decker's stripped-down La Traviata was the most controversial production at the Met last year. For its first revival, French soprano Natalie Dessay takes on the role of Violetta, a courtesan who finds love just as her time is running out. Matthew Polenzani returns as Alfredo, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Giorgio Germont. Fabio Luisi conducts.

The feeling of dread is heightened by Mr. Decker's staging, originally presented at the Salzburg Festival. The opera is presented on a unit set with one exit: a steep, bare stage with curved white walls that might be in a hospital or asylum. The room is dominated by an enormous clock, and haunted by Dr. Grenville, a silent, death-like figure who is onstage for most of the opera. The party-goers of Paris (male and female) are in tuxedos, faceless figures in Violetta's empty life.

La Traviata is Verdi's most intimate tragedy. A setting of Alexandre Dumas fils La dame aux camilles, this is an opera about suffering, illness and time running out. Verdi was inspired to set the younger Dumas' play by his longtime relationship with Giuseppina Strepponi, a former opera singer. For this work, Verdi wrote some his most memorable music. Highlights include the brindisi in Act I, the soprano showpiece Sempre libera, and Di provenza il mar, Germont's appeal to his wayward son.

Recording Recommendations
Verdi's most heart-rending opera has been lucky on disc. So we're giving four recommendations.

Coro e Orchestra de La Scala, cond. Antonio Votto (DG, 1963)
Violetta: Renata Scotto
Alfredo: Gianni Raimondi
Germont: Ettore Bastianini
The glories of this 1963 recording are the young Renata Scotto (in prima voce as Violetta) and the rock-solid presence of baritone Ettore Bastianini as the elder Germont. I still recommend it, especially at bargain price.

Bavarian State Opera Orchestra cond. Carlos Kleiber (DG, 1977)
Violetta: Ileana Cotrubas
Alfredo: Plácido Domingo
Germont: Sherrill Milnes
Carlos Kleiber was an extraordinary conducting talent who made very few recordings. This was one of his best, a studio-made, note-complete Traviata with a sensitive heroine in Ileana Cotrubas. The redoubtable team of Sherrill Milnes and Placído Domingo recorded a lot of operas together in the 1970s, but they manage to convince the listener as father and son.

Coro e Orchestra de La Scala cond. Riccardo Muti (Sony, 1992)
Violetta: Tiziana Fabbricini
Alfredo: Roberto Alagna
Germont: Paolo Coni
Expert Verdi conducting and a compelling performance by Roberto Alagna as Alfredo. Tiziana Fabbricini is a very good, involving Violetta who is helped by the live, theatrical recording made in Italy's most famous opera house. Reissued last year.

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Carlo Rizzi (DG, 2005)
Violetta: Anna Netrebko
Alfredo: Rolando Villazón
Germont: Thomas Hampson
I will also put a word in for this entertaining live recording from the Salzburg Festival. Anna Netrebko, captured in great form as Verdi's bird in a gilded cage. Rolando Villazon before he lost his voice. And like the Muti set, this has the immediacy of a live recording.
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Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Aida

The Met brings back a fan (and tourist) favorite.

Rush hour in Thebes: The Triumph from Act II of Aida.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera.

Seeing the Met's grandiose Sonja Frisell staging of Aida for the first time is like a walk through the Temple of Dendur without some guy nearby doing his Billy Crystal impression from When Harry Met Sally. In fact, sometimes you're so blown away by the too-big-for-the-stage statuary, heiroglyphs and elevator-powered sets that you forget about the singers.


Marcelo Álvarez will do his best to convince as Radames, the love-struck Egyptian general whose secret girlfriend (Violeta Urmana) happens to be a captured Ethiopian princess, and the opera's title character. Ms. Urmana's Aida will battle Amneris, the Pharoah's daughter, played by the formidable mezzo Stephanie Blythe.

The cast also features baritone Lado Atapeli as Aida's father Amonasro, and former king of the gods James Morris, serving them as the priest, Ramfis. Plus a whole lot of choristers in bald caps, loin cloths, and other Egyptian business. Marco Armiliato conducts.

This is a classy production with the Egyptians in white robes, the Ethiopians in appropriate jasper-like earth tones and everyone onstage in the second act (including the trumpeters) for the Triumphal March. It's been updated a few times, most recently with new ballet sequences (by Alexei Ratmanksy) for Act II. But the real triumph is for Local 1, the union for the Met's stagehands.

Recording Recommendations:
Considering its popularity, Aida has had bad luck on record. The safest recommendation is:

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Herbert von Karajan (Decca, 1959)
Aida: Renata Tebaldi
Amneris: Gulietta Simionato
Radames: Carlo Bergonzi
Amonasro: Cornell MacNeill
Ramfis: Arnold van Mill

There's a reason this recording, now 52 years old, is still in print.

Renata Tebaldi is everything an Aida should be, creamy of tone, filled with pathos, and able to cut through the (delicious) sachertorte of the superb Vienna Philharmonic. She is well-matched with Carlo Bergonzi, whose macho swagger and vocal stylings inspired Plácido Domingo's acclaimed interpretation. This is a collaboration between von Karajan, the singers, and producer John Culshaw, developer of the Decca SonicStage technology. And it has that moment where the air "cuts off" as the lovers are entombed.

Remastered properly in 2007, it still kicks the butt of every recording that followed.
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The Verdi List

The man known to some as "Joe Green" celebrates his 200th birthday in 2013. 

This post came about from a Twitter conversation with someone going under the name "Giuseppe Verdi." Here's my list of Verdi opera, first-to-worst. Since there are actually four operas out of the composer's catalogue that I still haven't seen or heard, it's not quite complete. OK. Here we go.

1. Rigoletto: You can see the tale of the hunchbacked jester with a lecherous boss a dozen times and it still plays, and still breaks the heart. The opera that got Verdi out of the "galley" and onto the international stage.


2. Don Carlos/Don Carlo: Verdi's darkest, longest and most symphonic opera: a heartbroken young man stares down the Spanish Inquisition--and blinks.
3. Simon Boccanegra (1883 revision): A bomb in its original version, Verdi's revision of Boccanegra was a work of theatrical genius, and the gateway to the brilliant work of his final years.
4. La Forza del Destino: The story is (literally) all over the place, but this experiment in destroying Aristotelian unities has some of the best music.
5. Otello: This might be the only Shakespeare opera that is better than the play it is based on. 
6. Il trovatore: The opera "with everything" is demanding for the singers. Although the plot is a bit old-fashioned, it works if you have the four best singers in the world, or at least the four best available.
7. Falstaff: With his last opera, the composer has the last laugh.
8. La traviata: The tragic end of Violetta never fails to pull the heartstrings. A family drama with great music and a challenging leading role.
9. Macbeth: This would be the best Shakespeare opera ever written if Verdi hadn't come out of retirement. Very underrated
10. Aida: The sellout after the experimentation of Forza and Don Carlo. And it continues to sell out...to packed houses.
11. Nabucco: Verdi's first grand opera and first hit. This goes high just for "Va, pensiero." 
12. Attila: The best bass role in Italian opera. 
13. Stiffelio: Banned by censors (and later revised and re-titled), Stiffelio found its audience--in the 20th century.
14. Un Ballo en Maschera: Another opera that struggled with censorship. Verdi contrasts light  court comedy with jealousy, personal tragedy and political assassination.
15. Ernani: The libretto (based on Victor Hugo) is hokey but the opera can send chills dow your spine.
16. La Battaglia del Legnano: An exercise in Italian patriotism. You never get to see it, but it's pretty good!
17. I due Foscari: Dark and experimental, this is kind of a fore-runner of Don Carlos.
18. I Lombardi alla prima crociata: The ambitious follow-up to Nabucco is too ambitious for its own good.
19. Les vêpres Siciliennes/I Vespri Siciliani: A five-act grand opera for Paris that ended with the Italians massacring the French. Slow, depressing, and all over the place.

Operas I've heard but never seen live or on video:

Luisa Miller: A pastoral tragedy that comes right before Rigoletto.

I Masnadieri: Kind of a follow-up to Ernani with a demanding soprano part written for Jenny Lind.

Il corsaro: One of Verdi's shortest operas. Not to be confused with Simon Boccanegra.

Alzira: Set in South America, this dashed-off rewrite of Voltaire is noisy and trite.

I did not include Oberto, Un Giorno di Regno, Giovanna d'Arco, Jérusalem. Aroldo, or the orignal version of Simon Boccanegra, as I've never listened to them. The last two are revisions of earlier operas--Jérusalem is a French reworking of I Lombardi. Aroldo was an attempt to rehabilitate Stiffelio by moving the story to the time of the Crusades in medieval Scotland.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Nabucco

The Met revives its production of Verdi's first hit.

The Met's staging of Nabucco. Photo by Marty Sohl. © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

Italian audiences yearning to breathe free loved Verdi's opera chronicling the Jews' escape from Chaldea and the eventual conversion of King Nebachudnezzar (the titular "Nabucco.") Nabucco was Verdi's third opera, and his first success. Although the work is not as polished as later masterpieces from the composer of Aida and Rigoletto, it crackles with raw energy and enthusiasm.

The fame of Nabucco rests largely on the back of the famous chorus "Va, pensiero", which became the unofficial theme of the Risorgimento, the movement to unify the Italian peninsula in the 19th century. It still serves as a sort of second Italian national anthem, and was recently sung at La Scala as a protest against government cuts to the arts. Here, Željko Lucic sings the title role in a revival of Elijah Moshinsky's production.
Nabucco opens on Sept. 27.

Recordings Recommendations:
Vienna State Opera Orchestra cond. Lamberto Gardelli (London, 1965)
Nabucco: Tito Gobbi
Abagaille: Elena Souliotis
Zaccaria: Carlo Cava

Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin cond. Giuseppe Sinopoli (DG, 1984)
Nabucco: Piero Capuccili
Abagaille: Ghena Dimitrova
Zaccaria: Evgeny Nesterenko

Philharmonia Orchestra cond. Riccardo Muti (EMI, 1986)
Nabucco: Mateo Managuerra
Abagaille: Renata Scotto
Zaccaria: Nicolai Ghauriov

There are three studio recordings of Nabucco. The first is in crisp Decca sound from the 1960s, with Tito Gobbi in the title role, a good supporting cast and a reliable Verdian in Lamberto Gardelli.

The Berlin recording features the great baritone Piero Capuccili in the lead. Sinopoli's sometimes unpredictable approach to the music is always entertaining. The tiny tenor part features an in-his-prime Placìdo Domingo.

Finally, Riccardo Muti conducts a great "Va, pensiero." for EMI. The drawbacks: a lesser Nabucco in Mateo Managuerra and a weak pair of ladies, with a faded Renata Scotto and the odd casting of Elena Obraztova as Fenena.
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Verdi: The Best of the Galley Years

Erroll Flynn rows the boat in The Sea Hawk.
© 1940 Warner Bros. Pictures

A Look at Five Great Early Verdi Operas.
Giuseppe Verdi was one of the most prolific and influential composers of Italian opera in the 19th century. In the course of a long career, he made advances in drama and orchestration that changed his chosen art form forever.

Verdi called the period from 1842 (the premiere of Nabucco) to 1851 (the premiere of Rigoletto) his 'galley years'. In that period, the composer cranked out fourteen operas. He had to satisfy a hungry public, a wide range of singers, and the capricious, difficult censors who tried to force the composer from Busetto to radically alter his work.

Here's the top five operas from Verdi's galley years. Chronological order.

1842: Nabucco (premiered Teatro alla Scala, Milan)
Verdi's third opera (and first real success) retold the story of Babylonian Captivity as a blood-and-thunder story. The plight of the captured Jews resonated with the Italian people, and the chorus "Va, pensiero" became a de facto anthem of Italian nationalism. Nabucodonosor became a beloved opera, affectionately known by its diminuitive.

• For more about Nabucco, read the Metropolitan Opera Preview page for the opera.

1846 Ernani (premiered La Fenice, Venice)
Early Verdi operas feature a lot of bandits, from the philosophical robbers of I Masnadieri ("The Bandits") to the romantic pirate of Il Corsaro. The most famous is Ernani, created by Victor Hugo and so honorable that he commits suicide rather than marry the leading lady in the last act. But it is also a great opera with a firebrand tenor part that points the way towards the great things to come in Verdi's mature period. Without Ernani, there would be no Trovatore.

• For more about Ernani, read the Metropolitan Opera Preview page for the opera.

1846 Attila (premiered La Fenice, Venice)
One of the few Italian operas with a bass lead, Attila is known for the swaggering sex appeal of its title character. The barbarian invader is presented as a sympathetic anti-hero brought down by the treachery of a rapidly falling Roman Empire. The line "Take all the world, but leave Italy for me" (actually sung by a Roman general negotiating for his life) became a battle cry as Italy moved toward unification and independence.

• For more about Attila, read our review of the Met's 2010 production.

1847 Macbeth (premiered Teatro della Pergola, Florence. Revised version premiered 1865 in Paris.)
Verdi's version of the "Scottish play" is always known by its English title. That oddity aside, this is a straight-up adaptation of the tragedy of an ambitious Scottish laird who embarks on a murderous march to the throne. Macbeth's leading Lady is one of the composer's most memorable creations: bloody-minded at the start of the opera she is ultimately destroyed by her own harrowing guilt. "Va, il tico maladetto!"

• For more about Macbeth, read the Metropolitan Opera Preview page for the opera.

1851 Rigoletto (premiered La Fenice, Venice)
Most Verdi scholars put this story of a hunchbacked jester at the start of the composer's 'mature' period. It could be argued that Rigoletto is transitional, owing much to the operas that came before. The opening features an onstage banda (small orchestra), playing the lilting rhythm that was an early Verdi trademark. The innovative storm scene (with its humming chorus) and the dark climax owe something to I Masnadieri and Macbeth. Rigoletto sums up and ends Verdi's early period, and is the first peak of his genius.

• For more about Rigoletto, read our Recommended Recordings guide.