Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 1 - Rigoletto

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 28 Leo Nucci The Singing Actor With a splendidly colorful instrument, plus the necessary range and style, Leo Nucci became a crucial Verdi performer beginning in the late 1970s. At Lyric he sang Verdi’s Renato (1980), Don Carlo di Vargas (1988), and Rigoletto (1990). The Chicago Sun-Times found Nucci ”superlative” as a Rigoletto who “easily dominates the stage in his big scenes.” Having already sung the role nearly 150 times by then, he was still singing it at age 74 (!) at La Scala in 2016. Onstage in a Zurich production from 2006, Nucci’s Rigoletto shows exceptional physical and facial detail. Remarkably agile when cavorting in his jester costume, he’s also very strong physically, even pulling the sack containing Gilda’s body while sustaining a high G. He has amazingly expressive eyes, memorably reflecting the haunted quality he brings to the words “Quel vecchio maledivami” (“That old man cursed me”). There’s some effortful singing occasionally, but late in his career, Nucci still has the music fully in hand. For the Gilda/Rigoletto scenes to touch the heart, there must be truly sincere affection between them— Verdi’s music demands it. In the Zurich production, Nucci gets this from Romanian soprano Elena Moçuc, and he responds in kind. How wonderful to watch his whole face and demeanor soften in their first duet (when leaving the house, he actually blows her a kiss). Later, at the palace, he’s desperately sad, especially when singing his heartbroken plea to the backs of the unfeeling courtiers. Like his great predecessors, Nucci never fails to reach the truth of a role that demands everything a great baritone has to give. Roger Pines writes regularly for Opera magazine (U.K.), opera-company programs throughout America, and major recording companies. He has been a faculty member at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music since 2019. LeoNucci.net s Now Playing: Igor Golovatenko Baritone Igor Golovatenko demonstrated extraordinary musical versatility early on, graduating first as a cellist from the Saratov Conservatory, then as a conductor from Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory before turning to vocal studies at the Moscow Academy of Choral Arts. He first wowed Chicago audiences in 2022, with his Lyric debut as Posa in Don Carlos . Stage and Cinema noted his “soaring and sinuous voice” and “gorgeously sonorous tone.” Now a mainstay at his hometown Bolshoi Theatre, Golovatenko has made an indelible mark at top houses around the world in a wide variety of repertoire, including classic Russian lyric-baritone roles such as Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades (his Metropolitan Opera debut role in 2019) and the title role in Eugene Onegin . Laura Servidei of Bachtrack , reviewing his Zurich Onegin, called him “elegant and aristocratic, but capable of outbursts which managed to cut through [the] thick orchestral texture,” adding that, “in the finale, his transformation was impressive, his desperation palpable.” Golovatenko’s Italianate tone, natural slancio , and grand-scale theatrical presence seem made to order for the meaty dramatic roles of Giuseppe Verdi, which form the heart of his repertoire. His Verdi credentials include all the staples—Germont in La traviata , Rodrigue in Don Carlos , Renato in Un ballo in mascher a, Iago in Otello , Di Luna in Il trovatore and, of course, his current Lyric role, Rigoletto—as well as some less often heard but equally intense characters such as Montfort in Les vêpres siciliennes , Seid in Il corsaro , and Don Carlo in La forza del destino , which he unveiled in a riveting performance at the Met last season. What makes Verdi’s towering figures such a perfect fit for Golovatenko? “I love his mode of writing for the voice,” the baritone said during a Met intermission interview. “This is very wise, you know— he doesn’t do the full energy in the first aria or first scene. He builds the role like a very good dramaturg.” In his current assignment, Golovatenko will have an opportunity to take full advantage of Verdi’s careful pacing and dramatic range. A YouTube video of the embittered jester’s showpiece, “Cortigiani! vil razza dannata,” makes it clear that Chicago audiences are in for a treat. Golovatenko throws himself into Verdi’s roiling opening phrases like a fury, figurative fists flying, then encases those angry fists in a glove of vocal velvet for the aria’s pleading second half, the warmth of his tone and his smooth legato expressing the full depth of his paternal affection. After his first outing in the role, in Savona, La Repubblica called him “an admirable Rigoletto . . . a splendid voice, beautiful portamento, ductile phrasing, and perfect diction”—clearly a worthy successor to the great Lyric Rigolettos of the past. —Louise T. Guinther