Roligetto

This was a day off for both of us.

We did not want to get burnt by the sun while staring at Stockholm Marathon.

We did some shopping instead (sun lotion!).

At the end of the day, when everything was cooler in town, we went to the Opera house to hear Rigoletto, by Giuseppe Verdi.

I, Aurore, liked the choir and the orchestra a lot.

The tenor, Tito Beltran had no voice. He was singing like Fozzie Bear in the Muppet Show. I was not impressed at all and neither was Gunnar.

The mise en scène was also very classical and very boring. 2 acts, 2 unities, many hundred occasions to fall asleep, but we did not.

Ice cream to cheer us up. And back h...

Now it's my (Gunnar's) turn: Rigoletto.
When it came to the soloists I fully agree with Aurore concerning Tito Beltran who otherwise is a very good singer.

In the rôle as Rigoletto we saw Marcus Jupither, the son of a very well known Swedish opera singer (bass singer), Rolf Jupither. I found his performance good and partly brilliant.

Lennart Forsén who was excellent and even better than the leading male singer Jupither. Forsén's bass is very smooth and deep 
and at the same time powerful.

(Photo copyright: http://www.jarfallasymfoni.org/sasong2004-2005/lennart_forsen.jpg)

Katarina Leoson as Maddalena, Sparafuciles sister was also very good.

One singer though stood above the others: Olga Mykytenko as Gilda. She was brilliant all through the opera and gave her best in every detail of her performance. Her coloratura was fantastic, her mezzo voce fantastic and when fading away in the diminuendo parts she really showed off. This was the first time she sang this rôle but it was as if she had sung it many times before and had had time to elaborate her character and her vocal performance.

She was really the big attraction of the evening!

As I didn't find any exerpts with Tito Beltran, I give you Jussi Björling: La donna è mobile: