Rigoletto

Verdi’s Rigoletto is justly one of the best-known of all great chorus operas, and The Royal Opera’s revival brings it back with a wonderful international cast under a renowned conductor of Italian opera, Daniel Oren.

In David McVicar’s powerful and perceptive staging, the cruel and the beautiful collide in a corrupt society, at whose head is the womanizing and carefree young Duke of Mantua. Rigoletto, the deformed court jester at the Duke’s court, has to play a hard game to survive.

Ensnared in the web of court affairs, a curse placed on Rigoletto starts to exert its power when his own daughter is abducted for sexual pleasure by his master. Revenge seems to be the jester’s only solution, but through the unwitting actions of his trusting daughter fate turns a dark tale even darker by the tragic fall of the curtain.

The score is much loved for such tuneful and famous numbers as ‘La donna e mobile’ sung by the carefree Duke, the beautiful and virtuosic ‘Caro nome’ from the innocent Gilda, and a wonderful quartet that winds the voices together just as the strands of the plot pointedly entangle.

Throughout, Verdi’s vision brings out the full range of the characters’ emotions, from elation to despair. No wonder, then, that Rigoletto’s combination of music and engrossing action continues to thrill each time it returns to the Covent Garden stage. This production contains nudity.

Running time: 3 hours 15 minutes | 2 Intervals
Performed in Italian with English surtitles

CREDITS
Composer:
Giuseppe Verdi

Director:
David McVicar

Set Designs:
Michael Vale

Costume Designs:
Tanya McCallin

Lighting:
Paule Constable

Choreography:
Leah Hausman

PERFORMERS
Conductor:
Daniel Oren

Duke of Mantua:
Francesco Meli

Rigoletto:
Leo Nucci
Paolo Gavanelli

Gilda:
Ekaterina Siurina

Maddalena:
Sara Fulgoni

Sparafucile:
Kurt Rydl

Giovanna:
Elizabeth Sikora

Count Monterone:
Iain Paterson

Marullo:
Changhan Lim§

Matteo Borsa:
Daniel Norman

Count Ceprano:
Vuyani Mlinde§

Countess Ceprano:
tbc