The legendary baritone Leo Nucci made his debut in Shanghai, performing the title character of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto at Shanghai Symphony Hall on March 9.

Since his debut of Rigoletto in 1973, the Italian singer, now 83 years old, has played more than 600 formal productions of the opera. Two performances are scheduled in Shanghai conducted by Zhang Lu, with soprano Yu Guanqun playing Gilda and all other characters played by Chinese vocal artists Xiahou Jinxu, Zhu Huiling and Wu Wei. The second show will take place on Tuesday night.

The new production changed the setting from the 16th century to the modern age, and the story remains the same: Rigoletto, the hunchbacked jester of the Duke of Mantua, finds his daughter seduced by the Duke, decides to take revenge, and falls in the whirlpool of fate.

Nucci praised the performance of Chinese singers and said they interpreted the emotions of the opera so accurately, it was like "listening to the opera on a record".