Program

Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto

Overture

I, 1: "Della mia bella incognita borghese"

I, 1: "Questa o quella per me pari sono"

I, 1: "Partite?... Crudele!"

I, 1: "In testa che avete"

I, 1: "Gran nuova! Gran nuova!"

I, 1: "Ch'io gli parli"

I, 1: "O tu che la feste audace"

I, 2: "Quel vecchio maledivami!" (Rigoletto, Sparafucile)

I, 2: "Pari siamo!" (Rigoletto)

I, 2: "Figlia! Mio padre!" (Rigoletto, Gilda, Giovanna)

I, 2: "Ah, veglia, o donna" (Rigoletto, Gilda)

I, 2: "Giovanna, ho dei rimorsi"

I, 2: "È il sol dell'anima" - "Addio... speranza ed anima"

I, 2: "Gualtier Maldè!"

I, 2: "Riedo!... perché?"

I, 2: "Zitti, zitti, muoviamo a vendetta"

I, 2: "Soccorso, padre mio!"

II: "Ella mi fu rapita!"

II: "Parmi veder le lagrime"

II: "Duca, Duca! – Ebben?"

II: "Povero Rigoletto!" (Marullo, Rigoletto, Coro, Borsa, Ceprano, Paggio)

II: "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" (Rigoletto)

II: "Mio padre!... Dio! mia Gilda!" (Gilda, Rigoletto, Borsa, Marullo, Ceprano, Coro)

II: "Tutte le feste al tempio"

II: "Compiuto pur quanto a fare mi resta"

II: "Poiché fosti invano da me maledetto... Si, vendetta, tremenda vendetta" (Monterone, Rigoletto, Gilda)

III: Preludio

III: "E l'ami?"

III: "La donna è mobile" (Il duca di Mantova)

III: "Un dì, se ben rammentomi"

III: "Bella figura dell'amor"

III: "Venti scudi hai tu detto?"

III: "E amabile invero"

III: "Della vendetta alfin giunge l'istante!"

III: "Chi mai, chi è qui in sua vece"

Verdi's Rigoletto

Miguel del Arco (stage director), Nicola Luisotti (conductor) — With Javier Camarena (Duke of Mantua

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Cast

Miguel del Arco — Stage director

Sven Jonke — Set designer

Ivana Jonke — Set designer

Ana Garay — Costumes designer

Juan Gómez-Cornejo — Lighting designer

Luz Arcas — Choreographer

Javier Camarena — Duke of Mantua

Ludovic Tézier — Rigoletto

Program notes

This production contains nudity; viewer discretion is advised.

Discover the greatest voices of the contemporary operatic stage in Verdi’s must-see opera Rigoletto. A hunchbacked jester in the service of the Duke of Mantua—a depraved and unscrupulous seducer (Javier Camarena)—Rigoletto (Ludovic Tézier) publicly uses his sharp and cruel wit to aid his master in his schemes of seduction. But in private, he is a loving father to his daughter Gilda (Adela Zaharia). When the Duke seduces Countess Ceprano, the spurned husband curses the jester and Gilda herself soon falls under the spell of the dangerous seducer…

The first installment of Verdi’s so-called “popular” trilogy—which also includes Il Trovatore (1853) and La Traviata (1853)—Rigoletto draws inspiration from Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’amuse. In this profoundly anti-monarchist play, the King is portrayed as a libertine figure whom none can challenge. To evade censorship, Francesco Piave’s libretto transforms the king of the original play into a duke. Yet the opera still preserves elements of the source material’s social resentment, especially through its deeply sympathetic portrayal of the protagonist’s suffering. Miguel del Arco chooses to focus his provocative staging on the place of masculinity in our society and the power dynamics it imposes. In this patriarchal world, women appear trapped by male desires, deprived of any real means of emancipation.

A closer look: featured composers

Giuseppe Verdi

Further listening: featured works

Rigoletto

Giuseppe Verdi (Composer)