Rigoletto

Within an ace of being a masterpiece, Scottish Opera's new Rigoletto throws its hand at the crucial moment. For most of the evening, it is perfect, its dramatic and musical languages working in absolute and rare harmony. Conductor Richard Armstrong allows his Wagnerian instincts to colour his handling of the score, ensuring that the music is absolutely at the service of the drama. Not a note is played without a complete grasp of its dramatic significance.

This is a Rigoletto powered by what lies beneath. Jason Howard's eponymous jester, grinning and stooped, always preserves the sneer inches below the surface. Richard Aylwin's fabulous two-level set provides countless opportunities for Verdi's set pieces of dramatic counterpoint. And none of it would be possible without Armstrong's intuitive understanding of the contradictory musical lines underpinning an apparently innocuous libretto.

The psychological tumult of all participants is laid bare. The cast, realising this, can give their all to the veneer their characters attempt to project. Howard's Rigoletto is a study in conflicting motivations, and he brings to them all the conviction necessary to set the drama in motion. It is a good, if not a great piece of singing, but there is never any doubt that he loves his daughter as passionately as he hates the courtiers; he makes up in dramatic force what he lacks in vocal polish. John Hudson, as the Duke, proves that he is one of the leading British tenors. Full-throated, rich and easeful, if weakening in stamina just slightly by the end, Hudson is near to being a genuinely great singer.

Yet it is in his person that the production founders. Although he is convincing enough as a womanising libertine, when we are asked to believe that a woman would sacrifice her life on his behalf, the dramatic edifice collapses. He is charming, but not nearly that charming. Maria Constanza Nocentini's Gilda could also be of more help in this regard: she sings beautifully, but with too much dispassionate intelligence to want to save such a palpable bastard. It is disappointing to see so vivid a production not quite going all-in.

· Until February 8. Box office: 0141-332 9000. Then touring.