Eddie Wade sings Rigoletto for Scottish Opera

This week British baritone Eddie Wade makes his role debut as Verdi’s Rigoletto in a new production for Scottish Opera by Matthew Richardson, conducted by Tobias Ringborg.  The production is featured as the Sunday Times “Classical Pick” by Hugh Canning, and marks Eddie Wade’s successful return to the company where he last sang Sharpless in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.

Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph has already noted that “Eddie Wade’s gruff, dour Rigoletto was marked by rich tone and breadth of phrasing” and Michael Tumelty of the Herald Scotland says that “his stage presence and his penetrating characterisation of the tormented hunchback probe all the ambiguities of the character.”

Kate Molleson of The Guardian reflects that “Eddie Wade’s sturdy and supple baritone makes for a compelling Rigoletto” and Kelvin Holdsworth, writing for Opera Britannia, remarks that “...Rigoletto was played by Eddie Wade – and here was a brilliant performance. Wade’s unfortunate hunchback ran the whole gamut of emotions before our eyes and explored an extraordinary palette of vocal colours as he did so. His duets with Nadine Livingston (Gilda) were wonderfully tender and the contrast between that tenderness and the bitter agony of the last act was one of the things which left the greatest impression of the evening. Pure and clear when playing the over-protective parent and a shocking nasal rage when he later discovered that he had been betrayed and had lost his daughter after all…This was a complex, rich and dark Rigoletto completely believable in his pain and completely satisfying to listen to.”

More details including performance dates and venues (in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Belfast and Dublin) can be found by clicking here.

You can also read an interview Eddie Wade gave to Michael Tumelty about his preparations for performing his first Rigoletto by clicking here.