Last night, while leading the audience in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to celebrate Opera Australia’s 70th anniversary, the national company’s Head of Music Tahu Matheson described the performance of Rigoletto we’d just witnessed as “outrageously good”. He wasn’t wrong.

As the ecstatic audience filed out of the streamer-strewn Joan Sutherland Theatre, there was no doubt this was the best way to celebrate OA’s achievements since that first Adelaide performance of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in 1956. And the reasons for this are numerous.

Dalibor Jenis and Gemma Nha in Opera Australia’s Rigoletto 2026. Photo © Keith Saunders

Dalibor Jenis’s finely honed portrayal of the titular court jester has truly ripened, as was predicted when he made his role debut in OA’s 2018 revival. His embittered and vitriolic take on the role restores the original, venomous reading of Michael Lewis, on whom the late director Elijah Moshinsky originally created the production in 1991, and which was somewhat lacking in the production’s last outing.

Jenis’s Rigoletto may resent the clown costume he wears, but it gives him agency to mock the revellers at the Duke of Mantua’s court as he cynically goads them on in their debauchery – that is until the consequences come home to roost.

His voice is assured throughout, from declamatory pronouncements that strike fear in the heart to more pensive moments, in which he dwells on Monterone’s curse, delivered here with chilling authority by Gennadi Dubinsky. It’s an impressive physical performance too, with Jenis using Rigoletto’s walking sticks like a Vaudeville hook, a golf club and, as the curtain comes down on Act II, to poke at Gilda’s discarded dressing gown like a giant praying mantis.

Kang Wang in Opera Australia’s Rigoletto 2026. Photo © Keith Saunders

As the Duke, Kang Wang is exceptional, both vocally and in his interpretation of a role that is far more complex than one often appreciates.

The audience’s ability to suspend disbelief at Gilda’s selfless devotion relies entirely on the Duke’s allure and his ability to convince us that he could be redeemed. Wang succeeds at this with flying colours, his Parmi veder le lagrime forcing us to believe he could be swayed toward constancy, even as he bemoans the fact that Gilda was abducted before he himself could take advantage of her. It’s not an easy task, but Wang sells it, guided by Verdi’s judicious dynamics and evenly navigating the tricky melismas.

As Gilda, Gemma Nha walks an emotional tightrope from rebellious bobby-soxer to grief-stricken abductee. Her Caro nome is sublime, her top notes effortlessly carrying over the orchestra and throughout the glorious Act III concertante alongside Jenis, Wang and the richly voiced Sian Sharp as Maddalena – a role she has made her own over several revivals.

Making his OA debut, conductor Sesto Quatrini works a miracle in the pit. His meticulous tempi drive the drama along, and Verdi’s orchestration truly comes alive as the Opera Australia Orchestra responds to his every gesture, whether it be the unsettling thrumming of the lower strings during David Parkin’s wonderfully sinister and sonorous first appearance as Sparafucile, the vehement sforzando runs of the violins under Concertmaster Matthieu Arama in Rigoletto’s Cortigiani, vil razza dannata, or the vivid tone painting in the final Act’s storm scene, with its tremulous strings evoking the wind, flute runs during the lightning strikes and thunder in the timpani and brass.

Sian Sharp and David Parkin in Opera Australia’s Rigoletto 2026. Photo © Keith Saunders

Quatrini also makes sure to draw out Verdi’s tinta, supporting the singers in their characterisations – the charisma that belies the Duke’s cruelty underscored by the bouncy, lyrical swagger of his melodies; Rigoletto’s rage expressed through soliloquy-like recitatives; and Gilda’s innocence and teenage yearned reflected by the lilting flutes of Katie Zagorski and Lisa Osmialowski and Arama’s delicate violin.

It’s a thrilling reading of a spectacular score, topped off by the brilliant Opera Australia Chorus under Paul Fitzsimon – the darkly comedic courtiers’ Scorrendo uniti remota via performed in lockstep and sunglasses is just one of their many fine onstage moments, while their offstage humming accentuates the storm to menacing effect.

Revival Director Kate Gaul deserves full credit for restoring the Fellini-esque quality of Moshinsky’s original, breathing new life into fully fledged characters that elicit visceral responses from the audience. It’s a potent piece of theatre and Gaul turbocharges it.

Michael Yeargen’s Fifties La dolce vita-inspired design remains one of the finest ever created for Rigoletto, so much so that he revisited it for a revised production at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2021. The OA original is still the best. Don’t miss it!

And happy birthday, Opera Australia!

Opera Australia presents Rigoletto at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House until 21 August.