Opera Scotland

Rigoletto 1987Finnish National Opera

Read more about the opera Rigoletto

With the Finns having such a wonderful record for creating their own operas in the 20th century, it was perhaps disappointing that only one Finnish work, Merikanto’s Juha, should have been brought to the Festival. After all, the company's British debut at Sadler's Wells in 1979 had been with Kokkonen's Last Temptations and Sallinen's Red Line.

This Rigoletto was a traditional production centred on the excellent performance of the title role by the leading Finnish baritone Jorma Hynninen. The young Chinese soprano Dilber gave an attractive, if very small-scale, performance as Gilda. The weakness was in the performance of the central role of the Duke by the only Italian in the cast. His limited acting made him an unappealing personality, and his vocal tone was bright and bleaty, not at all seductive.