RIGOLETTO / PROGRAM / Bastille / December 2024
Description
"It's a magnificent, grandiose subject, featuring one of the most extraordinary characters ever created in the theatre and in the world". With these words, Verdi asked Francesco Maria Piave to write a libretto inspired by Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse. A paradoxical character, Rigoletto is both a deformed buffoon, serving the Duke of Mantua in his seductive endeavours, and the embodiment of fatherly love for his daughter Gilda.
With its wealth of contrasts, the theme of the curse and its unforgettable arias, the opera, premiered at La Fenice in Venice in 1851, became the first of Verdi's great popular successes alongside Il Trovatore and La Traviata. Claus Guth has conceived his staging as a long flashback in which Rigoletto, wracked with remorse, relives the death of his daughter, to which he unwittingly contributed.
Product information
- Publication Year
- 2024
- Technical specification
Duration : 2h45 with 1 interval
Language : Italian
Surtitle : French / English
Opening
First part
60 min
Intermission
30 min
Second part
75 min
End
Melodramma in three acts (1851)
After Victor Hugo, Le roi s'amuse