"Rigoletto" is the first opera that I have ever attended. I was expecting to have a boring time, but to my surprise the show was very entertaining. The opera was performed October 7, 2003 at 8 p.m. at the "Ford Center for the Performing Arts". I was seated on the third row from the stage. It was nice being very close to the action. There was a lot of good music and a lot of action on stage. The crowd was into the whole show and was appreciative for the great singing from all the characters. The atmosphere of the show was casual to formal.
To start, I showed up at the show thirty minutes early to find my seat. While sitting there, I noticed that the orchestra was warming up. I heard a lot of mixed playing from the members of the orchestra. It was really rough on the ears. The dissonance was really annoying and I was ready to hear them play together. When the orchestra started playing in duple meter, and I noticed that it was the horn section to start out. The horns started out piano and began to crescendo to forte then decrescendo back to piano. As they were playing, the violins entered. Their dynamics were forte and the horns died out. The violins played for a while and when they began to decrescendo back to piano then the horns reentered. .
The curtains finally open and the scene was very joyous. The music was very upbeat and consonance, and there was dancing and drinking on stage. As this was going on, the woodwinds began to play. The wood winds playing was very smooth. This is scene where the Duke's character comes out. The Duke is obviously a ladies man. The Duke is a tenor. His singing is very good, but I felt and I believe that the crowd felt that he was inferior to Rigoletto's singing. The singing at the beginning of the orchestra is forte. Throughout the beginning of the show the singing was continually crescendos then suddenly cuts off. When the count of Monterone comes in he puts a curse on the Rigoletto after Rigoletto insults him.