Leo Nucci's and James Conlon's "Rigoletto" currently at la Scala, hasn't just earned a huge 9-minute ovation at the end of the premiere a few nights ago (as reported on Opera Chic): Corriere della Sera's chief critic -- usually very hard to please, and many big names in the business carry the scars to prove it -- unusually hails Nucci's and Conlon's work as "unforgettable". Conlon, writes Corriere,
"speaks perfect Italian, and he ruthlessly chases the «parola scenica» that singers nowadays tend to overlook... a Rigoletto such as this, under Conlon's baton, is unforgettable. He is an authoritative maestro, and manages to repair, for the time being, Scala's orchestral sound, and he makes it shine -- from strings to brass. He has a perfect understanding of the dramatic relationship between moments of different intensity. He's fluent in the interpretive tradition the way conductors of the old school used to be fluent. His control of the score is steely, and we hear that from the beginning -- he elegantly conducts the archaic dances of the opening scene... Conlon is one of the maestri who deserve to appear every year here"
Nucci? Well, according to the Milanese daily,
"if he's Rigoletto, the night's success is guaranteed: he is a good, humble man, witty and a scholar of acoustics: he radiates a sort of charisma that somehow makes the entire cast sing at their best".