TORONTO -- It's a pretty production. Finally, however, it's the singing and the music that together make the Canadian Opera Company's current production of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto worth seeing -- and in a world devoid of CDs and DVDs, that might be just the ticket.

But in today's world, the near-perfect vocal and instrumental versions of nearly everything are available at a music store near you, so it behooves opera producers to offer something more to entice an audience away from its home entertainment centre.

It's hard to imagine that any CD could be as thrilling as the live voice of Laura Claycomb, though, as she sails into the demanding arias Verdi created for the tragic character of the love-besotted Gilda, the ill-fated daughter of the title character. But a few good arias do not a production make.

Rigoletto himself, performed here by Alan Opie, is the hunch-backed jester to the court of the hedonistic Duke of Mantua (sung with considerable swaggering charm and polish by Giuseppe Gipali). Reviled by the rest of the Duke's court as much for his mean-spiritedness as his deformity, Rigoletto is nonetheless subject to some very human emotions. Not the least of which is the love he bears for his lovely and virginal daughter, Gilda, who has caught the eye of the skirt-chasing nobleman who employs her father.

Pity is, the Duke has caught Gilda's eye as well, and under the guise of a humble student he steals her heart.

Then, after Rigoletto's enemies at court kidnap Gilda in the mistaken assumption that she is the jester's mistress, the Duke steps in to sample more deeply of Gilda's charms.

That sets in motion the end game of a curse that will rob Rigoletto of everything he holds dear.

Despite some concern over "upper respiratory difficulties," Opie managed an impressive turn in the title role in Wednesday's opening night performance, and while Gipali and Claycomb were the standouts, they certainly weren't the only ones who impressed us in a company that also included Ayk Martirossian (as the assassin Sparafucile), Buffy Baggott (as his sister), Peter Barrett (as Marullo) and Cornelis Opthof and Colleen Skull (as the Cepranos). Under the baton of guest conductor Julian Kovatchev, the COC Orchestra kept things moving at a dramatic clip.

But even though set designer Michael Yeargan has given him a colour-drenched world twisted into the slightly surreal, and designer Constance Hoffman has captured a nightmare's edge in the costuming, the production never comes fully to life under Adrian Osmond's direction.

There are numerous things in this production to suggest that Osmond has strong directorial instincts -- but as this entire lifeless production proves, he has no idea how to bring them to life.

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