Rigoletto (1981)

The operas dramatic structure frames and enhances the characters Scenes of magnificence regularly alternate with scenes of darkness and squalor From sumptuous interiors we move to a dark street a lonely inn The secondary figures are astutely counterpoised the plotting courtiers against the plotting Sparafucile and Maddalena also ambiguously tenderhearted When Rigoletto says Pari siamo he could be expressing the motto of the whole work the beautiful and the ugly can be equally good equally evil