Ravinia scored a coup with a deeply satisfying performance of Verdi's Rigoletto, performed in concert on August 15 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under festival music director James Conlon, and featuring an uncommon appearance in the title role by Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Verdi's jester has only tangentially figured into the elegant Russian baritone's repertory, principally with a role debut in his native Siberia and a somewhat debatable outing at Houston in 2001. Obviously Hvorostovsky is nobody's visual ideal for the role — his entrance, in sleek black pants and open-necked silk blouse, made it seem to the uninitiated that one of the Chippendales wandered in by mistake — but his deeply felt portrayal proved among the most gratifying of his Chicago performances to date. Hvorostovsky's celebrated timbral beauty was most poignantly displayed in the lyricism of the opera's father/daughter duets; elsewhere, though purists might desire more heft in the climaxes, a darkening of tone and his intelligent inflection of text proved quite potent. His taunting of Ceprano was aural insinuation itself, and the pathetic, final cry of "pietà" that crowned his thrilling "Cortigiani" was shattering.

As his tenor nemesis, the Duke of Mantua, Stefano Secco fielded a brightly-textured instrument with a flickering vibrato and the requisite fluidity for the display writing; his lead into "É il sol dell'anima" was particularly appealing, as was the duet's gratefully restored cadenza.

Most enjoyable of all was the Gilda of Eglise Gutiérrez. Gutiérrez possesses a lovely lyric soprano, graced with notable warmth and body, and plenty of creamily-rounded tone in the middle register. "Caro nome" was enchanting, with trills absolutely in place, and her delicately floated top commanded attention even when Ravinia's notorious train flew noisily by during the cadenza. She also created a credibly modest, feminine character, and was quite comely onstage in a glittering crinoline of virginal white.

Secondary characters were uniformly solid, led by Morris Robinson's fearlessly subterranean Sparafucile and a refulgently erotic Maddalena from Natascha Petrinsky. Jason Stearns was terrific as Monterone. Hak Soo Kim and Paul Corona contributed authoritatively as Borsa and Marullo, as did Valerie Vinzant and Jonathan Beyer as the Cepranos. Katherine Lerner did fine work in her dual assignment of Giovanna and the Page. The men of the Apollo Chorus were excellent.

The greatest musical pleasures were provided by Conlon and by the superb playing of the CSO. Time and again one was reminded of Verdi's theatrical genius; Conlon's stealthily disquieting rendering of the opening prelude was a mini-drama in of itself. Excisions were minimal — "Oh! Quanto dolor!" lost a repeat — and high interpolations were generally avoided, which left those that remained the more illuminating in dramatic purpose. Achieving optimum balance in outdoor performance is tricky business, and the sound engineering initially left the voices adrift in a sea of oppressive acoustical enhancement. Once adjusted, the capacity audience (lawns outside the main pavilion overflowed with picnickers) were able to enjoy an exceptional evening of music drama on a glorious summer evening.

MARK THOMAS KETTERSON

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