Rigoletto review - Newcastle Theatre Royal audience drink in gripping tragedy of love and revenge

Verdi's Rigoletto is based on Victor Hugo’s controversial play Le roi s’amuse (The King has fun) and is a gripping tale of excess, privilege, love, loyalty and revenge.

Being a tragedy, it involves abduction, sexual abuse and heartbreak.

How then, can such subject matter be so tremendously played by the lead cast? Blake Denson as the eponymous Rigoletto is superb, as is his daughter Gilda (Jasmine Habersham) and the Duke of Mantua (Leonardo Sanchez), whose tenor was truly captivating.

Obviously Opera North represents the cream of the genre and there is no weaknesses in the vocals throughout the extensive ensemble, but these three excel to a degree that this production is taken to a level I've never seen previously.

The three action-packed scenes of an hour, 40 minutes and 30 minutes zipped by to such an extent that when the curtain came down at the end of each act I wondered why it has come down so soon.

The storyline is of the Duke who is into “fun”, using women and then laughing at the shamed husbands and fathers. Rigoletto, his jester, is hired to provide the humiliating insults until he is cursed by the cuckolded Count Monterone (Sir Willard White).

This is when we meet Gilda.

Rumour has that Gilda is Rigoletto's secret lover but she's not. She's his over-protected daughter who is locked away and only allowed out of the house to attend church. Gilda has, however, attracted the attention of the lustful Duke.

Together, Denson and Habersham are incredible. With his strident baritone entwined with her coloratura soprano, their duets are mesmerising. There's real father/daughter emotion and tenderness. The frisson is tremendous.

Gilda is kidnapped and sexually abused by the Duke. Rigoletto swears revenge on his paymaster. The whole thing ends in tragedy, with a heart-breaking twist.

The only criticism of director by Femi Elufowoju Jr's vision is that he's set a story (based in the 16th century) in a modern framework and it just confuses. The royal court is now a private art gallery and people are dressed in modern boiler suits and Versace prints.

Gilda and Rigoletto don traditional African dress. While three wigged Georgian valets keep appearing. It wasn't surreal, just... confusing.

However, the wonderful Orchestra of Opera North, the vocals, the music and the acting cut through any confusion and Elufowoju Jr's final setting in a tent encampment with a burnt-out car at the docks is a masterpiece.

As the storm breaks, hired assassin Sparafucile (Callum Thorpe) gets his co-conspiratorial sister Maddalena (Alyona Abramova) to seduce the Duke and they move in for the kill. Again, their performances are tremendous.

In a word: superb.