John Darrenkamp

Live performance at the Metropolitan Opera, 1984. James Levine conducting Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Stage direction by Piero Faggioni.

The opera's dramatic structure frames and enhances the characters. Scenes of magnificence regularly alternate with scenes of darkness and squalor. From sumptuous interiors, we move to a dark street, a lonely inn. The secondary figures are astutely counterpoised: the plotting courtiers against the plotting Sparafucile and Maddalena (also ambiguously tender-hearted). When Rigoletto says "Pari siamo", he could be expressing the motto of the whole work: the beautiful and the ugly can be equally good, equally evil.

L’opéra romantique de Wagner exige des acteurs chanteurs capables de véritablement occuper leur rôle, et c’est exactement ce que nous avons ici. Est-il possible pour un chevalier du Saint Graal d'avoir l'air plus séduisant que Peter Hofmann ? Pas étonnant qu'Elsa (Eva Marton) tombe amoureuse au premier regard. L’héroïne de Marton est innocente, mais c’est aussi une jeune femme passionnée et réelle – ce qui est une bonne chose, car Leonie Rysanek est positivement démente dans le rôle d’Ortrud, la sorcière qui accuse Elsa et Lohengrin d’utiliser la magie. Sous la superbe direction de James Levine, l’orchestre et le chœur sont tout aussi magiques.

Leonora plans to elope with Don Alvaro, but he accidentally shoots and kills her father, who curses them as he dies. The lovers go on the run, but get separated. Bent on revenge, Leonora's brother Don Carlo, hunts them down. Verdi painted an immense canvas with this dark but tuneful opera, vividly brought to life in John Dexter’s production, with sets by the great Eugene Berman. The legendary Leontyne Price is seen in one of her greatest roles, Leonora. Price’s soaring voice encompasses every nuance of Leonora’s emotion as she moves from joy through resignation to ultimate heartbreak. James Levine’s brilliant leading of the Met orchestra and chorus is a lesson in Verdi style. Giuseppe Giacomini is Alvaro, the man Leonora loves, and Leo Nucci is Don Carlo, the dark instrument of their Fate.