★★☆☆☆
This Verdi revival is such a tease, and not in a good way. The opening scene is a full-on Renaissance orgy and nobody does mass depravity on stage with more unbridled gusto than David McVicar. Bare-breasted whores are violated from all available angles. A young man is stripped, right down to his waggling willy. There are couplings and threesomes to suit every taste. The only surprise is that no sheep are involved.
It’s a jaw-dropping, and entirely appropriate, introduction to the Duke of Mantua’s rapacious court, where the morals are clearly as skew-whiff as Michael Vale’s set. The latter is a steeply angled palatial façade that revolves (much too slowly — the laborious scene-changes sap the drama of its momentum) to reveal the decrepit