Yet the Russian soprano quickly found her footing, singing the rest of Gilda’s showpiece aria with great sensitivity and youthful, resplendent tone. Making her company debut as Gilda, Albina Shagimuratova started in anodyne fashion, singing under pitch and leading into Caro nome far too loudly. Even by Verdi standards, Rigoletto is relentlessly grim and merciless, painted in some of his most remarkable music, as with the celebrated quartet, the eerie low strings and wind writing for the assassin Sparafucile, and the remarkable offstage choral voices that contribute to the howling winds of the climactic thunderstorm. It’s ironic that Verdi’s tale of the hunchbacked jester and the licentious Duke who seduces Rigoletto’s innocent daughter Gilda is popularly known for some of the composer’s sprightliest arias ( Questo a quella and La donna e mobile). And, while the opening-night performance was slow out of the gate with some decidedly uneven moments, a trio of impressive company debuts provided enough vocal and dramatic fireworks to end the evening successfully. Lyric Opera of Chicago revived Verdi’s dark three-act melodramma Monday night at the Civic Opera House. Rape is sport, society is cruel and wholly amoral, and the purest and most innocent die horrible deaths. What a bleak, godless and unforgiving landscape Rigoletto inhabits. Albina Shagimuratova as Gilda, Andrzej Dobber in the title role of Lyric Opera’s “Rigoletto.” Photo: Dan Rest
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