LINCOLN CENTER
Metropolitan Opera
Rigoletto - Verdi
Premiere: Teatro la Fenice, Venice, 1851
"Rigoletto is a journey of undeniable force that commands the respect of critics, performers, and audiences alike. It was immensely popular from its premiere—from even before its premiere, if we credit accounts of the buzz that surrounded the initial rehearsals—and remains fresh and powerful to this day. The story is one of the most accessible in opera, based on a controversial Victor Hugo play whose full dramatic implications only became apparent when transformed by Verdi’s musical genius. Rigoletto is the tale of an outsider—a hunchbacked jester—who struggles to balance the dueling elements of beauty and evil that exist in his life. Written during the most fertile period of Verdi’s remarkable career, the opera resonates with a universality that is frequently called Shakespearean.
Rigoletto contains a wealth of melody, including one that is among the world’s most famous: “La donna è mobile.” The opera’s super-familiar arias—“Questa o quella” and “Caro nome,” for example—are also rich with character insight and dramatic development. The heart of the score, though, lies in its fast-moving subtleties and apt dramatic touches. The baritone’s solos, “Pari siamo!” (Act I, Scene 2) and “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata” (Act II), are epic scenes telescoped to less than four minutes each. Not even Wagner’s great monologues cover more territory than these, and certainly not within Verdi’s economy of means. The celebrated father–daughter duets also reflect Verdi’s overall design. Rigoletto sings of his protective love for Gilda in Act I, Scene 2 in a spun-out phrase of simple, honest melody, while her music decorates his. In their subsequent scene in Act II, Gilda’s music (and, by implication, her life) is similarly intertwined with that of Rigoletto, until finally her melody breaks away as she strives to declare her adolescent independence. The famous quartet “Bella figlia dell’amore” (Act III) is an ingenious musical analysis of the diverging reactions of four characters in the same moment: the Duke’s music rises with urgency and impatience, Gilda’s droops with disappointment, Rigoletto’s remains measured and paternal, while the promiscuous Maddalena is literally all over the place. In the context of the opera, the merely lovely music becomes inspired drama.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings the title role of Verdi’s tragic masterpiece for the first time at the Met in Michael Mayer’s dazzling production set in Las Vegas—the neon-bedecked hit of the 2012–13 season. Matthew Polenzani is the womanizing Duke, and Irina Lungu and Sonya Yoncheva, both in their Met debuts, sing Gilda."
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