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, Ludovic Tézier, Marina Viotti and Adela Zaharia. Streamed by Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision.
The Plot: 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.
Sung in Italian. Subtitles in Italian, Spanish and English
Streamed on Thursday 26th December 2024 at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
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