The Royal Opera’s latest revival of David McVicar’s production of Rigoletto primarily forms a vehicle for Simon Keenlyside, who plays Verdi’s tragic jester in a startling performance that is as much about physicality as it is about singing. Whirling around on crutches in the opening scene, he reminds us of Antony Sher’s Richard III. His gestures are obscene, and few Rigolettos have quite so forcefully brought home the fact that the loathing with which he satirises the Mantuan court is genuine rather than assumed.

Face to face, however, with Aleksandra Kurzak’s Gilda, he (as he tells us), “turns into another man”. His stoop is such that he is forced to gaze upwards into her face in their duets, and he does so with the sad wonder of a man whose much-loved daughter is a constant reminder of the dead wife he adored.

Much of this is immensely powerful, yet there are also some minor vocal inequalities. Some people will prefer a fuller tone in Verdi. On occasion, Keenlyside sings off the words rather than the line, which can fracture in the process. It is emblematic of his performance as a whole that he sings Cortigiani crawling across the floor in abject humiliation after Duncan Rock’s brutal Marullo has snatched away his sticks; the scene is harrowing to watch, but you’re also aware that Keenlyside’s voice doesn’t quite ride the orchestral climaxes as it ideally should.

He’s not always helped by what is going on round him. Kurzak is technically breathtaking, though dramatically she’s too knowing to make Gilda’s naivety entirely credible. Saimir Pirgu’s bully-boy Duke is graceless and unappealing, and there’s some curiously wayward conducting, sluggish yet hard-edged, from the usually reliable Maurizio Benini. It’s a fascinating, though flawed, revival.

• In rep until 6 October. Box office: 020-7304 4000. Venue: Royal Opera House, London WC2