The Destructive Love of a Father

If something defines a work of art, it is that there is always something new to say. Absent since 2013 from the Teatro de la Maestranza, Rigoletto is one of the titles that defines the opera genre. Perhaps that explains why we believe everything has already been said about the ill-fated story of the court jester and his headstrong daughter who falls in love at the dissolute court of Mantua. Nevertheless, the staging concept of Miguel del Arco opens new perspectives on Verdi’s work. The composer perceived in the creature of Victor Hugo a character worthy of Shakespeare and, as such, she was born to become eternal.

The stage production brings the action forward to our times: the possessive love of the father, the fatal rebelliousness of Gilda and the amoral attitude of the duke. The dramatic tension, that fundamental ingredient in any of Verdi’s dramas is created from the friction between the opera which we think we know and a society whose codes are familiar. Juan Jesús Rodríguez (Rigoletto) is in fine form as he heads the tragic love triangle. Beside him are the splendid voices Francesco Demuro (Duke of Mantua) and Leonor Bonilla (Gilda) in the first cast. A Rigoletto which will cause a stir.


MELODRAMMA IN THREE ACTS BY GIUSEPPE VERDI
LIBRETTO BY FRANCESCO MARIA PIAVE, BASED ON THE PLAY LE ROI S’AMUSE (1832) BY VICTOR HUGO
PREMIERE ON 11 DE MARCH, 1851 AT THE TEATRO LA FENICE OF VENICE
LAST PERFORMED AT THE TEATRO DE LA MAESTRANZA IN 2013