RIGOLETTO Verdi – Teatro Real

When a sharp-tongued court jester Rigoletto is cursed for his spiteful words, he is forced to hide his unworldly daughter Gilda from his own licentious master the Duke. For Verdi’s wonderful ambivalent hunchback, paradise is the peaceful home and family that he struggles to protect.

To elevate a jester to a tragic stature comparable to a Macbeth or a Lear is no easy feat. The dramatic essence of Shakespeare runs in the veins of this Rigoletto, although the story is based on the controversial Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo. While the play was prohibited in France for more than fifty years, Verdi himself fought with the censors who initially prevented the publication of his opera. Eventually, the Austrian censors authorised it by demoting the king in the title to a duke to diminish - or in an attempt to - the magnitude of the assassination which constitutes the crux of the plot. Perhaps they did not reckon with Pari siamo and Cortigiani, the crucial monologues of the jester which, thanks to the music of Verdi, act as two unsuspected expressions of protest and social resentment. Multi-faceted, perhaps more than any other opera by Verdi - tender, cruel, interspersed with remarkable strokes of black humour -, Rigoletto is also a heart-wrenching study about the love between a parent and a child. Given the helplessness of a woman in the face of a group of men, Teatro Real’s production, which is directed by Miguel del Arco, also considers society's concept of masculinity. Nicola Luisotti conducts some of the great voices of our day, including Javier Camarena, Xabier Anduaga, Ludovic Tézier and Adela Zaharia.

CAST

Duke of Mantua
Javier Camarena

Rigoletto
Ludovic Tézier

Gilda
Adela Zaharia

Sparafucile
Peixin Chen

Maddalena
Marina Viotti

Giovanna
Cassandre Berthon

Count Monterone
Jordan Shanahan

Marullo
César San Martín

Matteo Borsa
Fabián Lara

Count Ceprano
Tomeu Bibiloni

Countess Ceprano
Sandra Pastrana

A page
Inés Ballesteros

Orchestra
Teatro Real Orchestra

Chorus
Teatro Real Chorus

Music
Giuseppe Verdi

Text
Francesco Maria Piave

Conductor
Nicola Luisotti

Director
Miguel del Arco

Sets
Sven Jonke
Ivana Jonke

Costumes
Ana Garay

Lights
Juan Gómez-Cornejo

Choreography
Luz Arcas

Chorus Master
José Luis Basso

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[nicolaitesla]

Muchas Gracias por traernos estás obras maestras de la opera 😊

[jawahardeo]

Teziers singing simply magnificent. Some singing of arias as good as Titto Gobbi

[iandvern]

This is why I prefer concert performances more and more.

[jakiloudon]

Whoever cast this production got it right. 💕

[indemidova]

Verdi's music is amazing!. Voices are beautiful!, But staging is awful, dances are so vulgar!

[renepierre]

Only music, only music is left. The singers and the Maestro are very good. Modern and megalomaniac theater directors should start digging the earth, without any mercy.

[JuanCastillo-svye]

Parece más el teatro chino de Manolita Chen que a una ópera 😢😢😢😢

[judithvogt]

BRAVO 👏 👏 👏 Ludovic Tézier ❤❤❤SYMPLY THE BEST!!!

[maschamueller]

Fantastisch Ludovic🩷 Liebe Grūsse an Dich, Mascha.

[MrLuisfer]

Que puestas en escena son esas???, eso es ópera debe ser como la pensaron sus escritores, no esas cosas modernistas que se les ocurren ahora....

[jawahardeo]

I didn't expect a Teatro Real Madrid production to be so disgusting and horrible

[kid]

In queste scene é difficile riconoscere l´opera il Rigoletto come ancheil baritono grande voce ma lontano dal buffone

[lidove]

Regie come questa, completamente senza senso, estranee alle indicazioni del libretto, compromettono oltre quella visiva anche la parte musicale, che cantanti pur all'altezza del compito — nel contesto — sono assai spaesati. Regista incompetente che andrebbe allontanato dai palcoscenici lirici per il bene del Melodramma.

[josbonello]

how dare the author of this version dare profane such a sublime artistic musical opera into a dirty and pornographic peice of rubbish

[Calogeropoulos]

I think Zaharia was well above Camarena. She has such a control over her superb voice!!

[LaPrimadonna]

Gracias OV y Teatro Real. A mi si me gustó la conducción de Luisotti. Muy buena Gilda. El resto de voces, sin comentarios. Alfredo Kraus un fantástico duque de Mantua. Gracias❤❤❤

[jawahardeo]

Tezier is one of the best Rigolettos I've ever heard

[bui]

Possono avere le voci più belle possibili, ma con una regia così orribile non ci sono parole o commenti da fare....Il cosiddetto regista non ha minimamente letto il libretto, il risultato è una porcheria...

[dragoscojocaru]

Great cast and conducting! Horrible production!

[vhar]

Escuchar las voces de estos cantantes en CD, perfecto. Pero la producción es un bodrio insoportable. Malísima.