Los Angeles Opera ends its season with a new production of Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ featuring baritone Quinn Kelsey, whose visceral energy and terrifying clown suit are the stuff of nightmares.

Though mean-spirited, the jester Rigoletto — Verdi’s hapless, vengeful hunchback — wins our hearts as the outsider whom a heartless world so often abuses. “Rigoletto” remains an opera reminding us where to direct our sympathies when authoritarianism remains the alternative.

That is not as straightforward as it sounds. Los Angeles Opera has struggled with one insufficient “Rigoletto” production after another, imported or homegrown. Singers and conductors have been counted on to save the show, and sometimes they have. Last time around, the most interesting contribution was, however scrappy, conductor Mat

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