Guiseppi Verdi's Rigoletto
June 6, 2010
3:00 pm at Dreyfuss Theatre, Madison Campus
Reserved Seats: $45.00 ~ Unreserved: $35.00.
(Discounts available for 20 or more tickets) Contact 973-443-8620 for details
Maestro Robert Butts, conducting
Guiseppi Verdi's Rigoletto was first performed in March of 1851 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Rigoletto is a jester in the court of the Duke of Mantua and he's good at his job of humiliating the courtiers for the amusement of the Duke. The courtiers, of course, are not amused. As the opera begins, the Duke, a ladies man, has taken an interest in a young lady who he sees, every Sunday on her way to church. He vows to have his way with her. Unbeknownest to the Duke, the girl is the jester's beloved daughter, Gilda. Gilda has seen the Duke every Sunday and is smitten with him. Meanwhile in another scene, Count Monterone appears at court, furious that the Duke has seduced his daughter. Rigoletto ridicules Monterone, the Duke laughs, and Monterone casts an awful curse on both of them.
Later, the courtiers discover that Rigoletto is secretly living with Gilda, whom they believe to be his mistress. In an attempt to humiliate Rigoletto, they kidnap Gilda and deliver her to the Duke's bedroom, where she is quite willing to let him have his way with her. Rigoletto returns to the court and reveals to the courtiers' amusement that Gilda is his daughter. Consumed with the desire for revenge, Rigoletto contacts a murderous thief named Sparafucile to lure the Duke to Sparafucile's tavern on the river where Sparafucile will murder the Duke. Knowing the Duke will find Maddalena, Sparafucile's daughter, irresistible, Rigoletto takes Gilda to stand outside the tavern so she can see for herself that the Duke is not a faithful lover. Gilda is crushed as she looks through the window to see the Duke wooing Maddalena, and at Rigoletto's urging she dons men's clothing so she can return home safely by herself. But she returns to the tavern to overhear Rigoletto and Sparafucile plotting to kill the Duke. Then, after Rigoletto leaves, she hears Maddalena pleading with Sparafucile not to kill the Duke, but instead to kill the first person who comes through the door and give that body to Rigoletto instead. Gilda in an effort to save the Duke knocks on the door, enters the tavern and is stabbed (nearly) to death by Sparafucile. The thief then wraps her in a rug and drops her body through a trap door to Rigoletto, who is waiting in a boat below. As Rigoletto paddles to the river to dispose of the body, he hears the Duke singing in the distance, opens the rug, and to his horror he discovers his almost-dead daughter. They sing a heartbreaking duet, Gilda dies, and Rigoletto wails that the curse has come to pass.
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