Verdi’s Rigoletto has been an operatic staple right from its 1851 premiere. Offering star roles for an agile soprano with lots of top notes, a swaggering tenor, and an especially great role for a baritone of a certain age, it also boasts two great hit arias and an equally renowned quartet. Add in a surfeit of melodrama, derived from Victor Hugo no less, and you can see why audiences keep coming back and why Vancouver Opera revisits it on a regular basis.

There is the caveat that the plot driving it all gets harder to stomach with each passing decade. Originally set in Renaissance Mantua, Rigoletto gets perpetually reimagined, from the gangster 1920s in New York’s Little Italy to the contemporary Eurotrash era. Here, director Glynis Leyshon decided to set it in Verdi’s own era, but transfe

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