Ages from its premiere at La Fenice in 1851, Italian opera director Daniele Abbado brings his new vision for Verdi's tragic opera (and Piave's gorgeously effective libretto) Rigoletto to Venice's historic opera house on September 25th.
Opening night's cast is Eric Cutler as The Duke, Roberto Frontali as Rigoletto, and Désirée Rancatore as Gilda. Our favorite humanitarian conductor, Myung-Whun Chung, conducts.
Abbado (junior) spoke to Corriere's Io Donna about the new production:
"The theatrical language of Rigoletto is powerful and revolutionary. In those years, Verdi was thinking about writing an opera about King Lear and he retained lots of ideas about that project which influenced this work. My production cuts out the exaggerated, deformed appearance of Rigoletto because to me it's not right to represent him like an Elephant Man figure. Instead, the scandalous characteristics of the opera depends on the fact that none of the protagonists have a uniform nature. Rigoletto, the Duke, and even Gilda mix in reality the negative and positive elements of their souls. None of them is completely innocent, the good and the bad is mixed in their hearts."