Premiere 2/9/2024 Subsequent performances: 5, 8*, 10, 13, 18, 20, 24, 29* September 2024 | Curtain-up: 19:30 / *14:00 | Ticket sales start on: 7 May 2024 | Price Category: A | Location: Main Stage, Dutch National Opera & Ballet Revival Opera in three acts Sung in Italian Libretto Francesco Maria Piave Musical direction Yi-Chen Lin Stage director Damiano Michieletto Set designer Paolo Fantin Costume designer Auguste Cavalca Video designer Roland Horvath Il Duca di Mantova René Barbera Rigoletto Roman Burdenko Gilda Aigul Khismatullina Sparafucile Alexander Köpeczi Maddalena Maya Gour Giovanna Eva Kroon Il Conte di Monterone Frederik Bergman Marullo Martin Mkhize Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus of Dutch National Opera Chorus master Edward Ananian-Cooper Can you go too far in protecting your child from worldly dangers? Verdi’s Rigoletto tells the story of a father who locks his daughter away in an attempt to protect her from his abusive employer, the Duke of Mantua, a womaniser who regularly oversteps the mark. All of Rigoletto’s efforts, however, turn out to be in vain. In selecting Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo (1832), a play that was banned after the first performance, the socially engaged composer Giuseppe Verdi once again chose an edgy, topical subject for an opera. Verdi shows us a degenerate milieu where transgressive behaviour is the rule rather than the exception. When the cynical court jester Rigoletto is cursed by the father of one of the Duke’s victims, he is gripped by paranoia. Eventually, his worst fears come true. Focus on Rigoletto’s psyche Damiano Michieletto, who previously directed Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims (2015) and Raskatov’s Animal Farm (2023) for Dutch National Opera, focuses on the nervous, broken character of Rigoletto. The tortured man finds himself in a psychiatric institution, where he relives the events of his life in the form of flashbacks. Michieletto’s interpretation already made a deep impression on audiences and the press at the Amsterdam premiere in 2017. Some key changes to the production were made for a recent performance run in Venice. Now, Rigoletto will return to Dutch National Opera in this revised, sharpened version. The energetic young conductor Yi-Chen Lin will be leading the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in her debut with Dutch National Opera. She can rely on an impressive cast of singers: baritone Roman Burdenko is returning to Amsterdam as Verdi’s tormented father after his powerful interpretation of Tonio in Cavalleria rusticana. Tenor René Barbera, acclaimed for his ringing voice, will sing the role of the wayward Duke of Mantua and up-and-coming soprano Aigul Khismatullina will make her Amsterdam debut as Gilda. Rigoletto Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901) A father’s obsessive love “An insanely b eautiful and claustrophobic Rigoletto” Trouw 19
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