Rigoletto is probably one of the best operas I've seen the COC perform. Proof: Thanks to the plot, music, and most of the quality of the singing, I felt so resentful of being so effecitvely emotionally manipulated (particularly in the second half of Act 1 and in Act 2; Act 3 was more over-the-top cliché) that currently I never want to see that opera again.

Yet again, as has been the case with so many recent COC productions, the role of the young woman was easily the best sung part. The actor singing Rigoletto was solid, but the pre-performance announcement told us that, despite his upper respiratory infection, he insisted on singing the part tonight, so presumably I might have been more impressed on another night. The production was a fairly literal one, in terms of costume, with somewhat abstracted, but appropriate, scenery. Verdi certainly wrote some extraordinary music for that opera.