Baltimore Opera Theatre, Inc.

Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave; based on Victor Hugo's drama: LE ROI S’AMUSE

DISTRIBUTION

Artists are subject to change without notice

Courtiers, ladies and gentlemen of the court, servants

Time and Place:
16th Century Mantua, Italy

NELSON MARTINEZ (Rigoletto): Young Verdi baritone Nelson Martínez began his professional career in Cuba as principal soloist with the Rodrigo Prats Lyric Theater, and later with Cuban National Opera. At Cuban National Opera, Mr. Nelson performed the main principal roles of the Italian repertoire, Figaro, Enrico, Germont, Rigoletto, Alfio, Tonio, Silvio and Marcello. In zarzuela, Mr. Martínez has performed the roles of Mario, Vidal, Germán, Joaquín, J. de Eguía, Juan Pedro, Juan en Los Gavilanes, Lázaro in EL CAFETAL, José Dolores Pimienta in CECILIA VALDÉS and José Inocente in MARÍA LA O. Abroad, Mr. Martínez has performed in opera and concert in Russia, Korea, China, France, Portugal and Spain on tour with the National Cuban Opera. He also appeared in Bogotá and Mexico City.

Mr. Martínez has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, among them the Grand Prize in the Ernesto Lecuona International Competition for Young Singers and the Grand Prize in the Fourth National Rodrigo Prats in Memoriam Competition in Havana. He was also a winner in the Belle Voci Competition in Eugene, Oregon in 2004.

In the United States, Mr. Martínez has been heard as Figaro and Rigoletto with Miami Lyric Opera and with Sociedad Pro Arte Grateli, the leading zarzuela company in the United States, as Juan Pedro in LA ROSA DEL AZAFRÁN. In the summer of 2008, he sang Escamillo with Metro Lyric conducted by Maestro Anton Coppola. In September, he appeared with Opera Company of North Carolina as Tonio in I PAGLIACCI. In December 2008, Mr. Martínez participated in a gala concert with the Miami Concert Association in the title role in RIGOLETTO, reprising the character with Knoxville Opera in February 2009. In April 2009, he appeared with Teatro Grattacielo at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in the role of Il Capitano in Mascgni’s IL PICCOLO MARAT. In February 2010, Mr. Martínez will take on the role of Enrico with Knoxville Opera, followed by RIGOLETTO in Baltimore.

IGOR BORK (Duke of Mantua): Ukrainian tenor Igor Borko, is making his Baltimore Opera Theatre debut this season. Soloist of the National State Opera in Kiev, Mr. Bork is a laureate of a number of several international competitions, including, among others, the Vincenzo Bellini Competition at Ragusa, Italy, and the Francisco Vinas Competition in Barcelona, Spain. He studied at the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music and attended master classes with Renate Faltin in Germany and Furelli Carmen-Forti at Milan’s La Scala.

Mr. Bork has made guest appearances in the United States, China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary and Russia. His repertoire encompasses principal parts in the world’s best-known operas, including Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Bizet’s LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES, Puccini’s LA BOHÈME, Verdi’s RIGOLETTO and LA TRAVIATA, Richard Strauss’s DER ROSENKAVALIER, Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN, Gounod’s FAUST, Rimsky-Korsakov’s ALEKO, SNEGUROCHKA and THE TSAR’S BRIDE. Mr. Bork made his debut appearance at the Prague State Opera in 2008, as Edgardo in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, reprising the role twice that spring. That summer the accomplished tenor performed in the 16th Festival of Italian Operas. His new creation at the Prague State Opera this fall is the role of the Duke of Mantua in RIGOLETTO.

LARISSA YUDINA (Gilda): Possessed with lighting fast and accurate coloratura, soprano Larissa Yudina has been an audience favorite since her arrival at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1998. Ms. Yudina is a prizewinner of the Diaghilev Opera competition (1998), the Rimsky-Korsakov competition (1998, 2000) and the Elena Orbraztsova competition (2005). She was also a diploma recipient from the Russian Ministry of Culture for performances at the Mariinsky Theatre. In 2006, Ms. Yudina was nominated for a Golden Mask (for best female role), Russia’s most important theatre prize for Contessa di Folleville in IL VIAGGIO A REIMS.

Ms. Yudina has been a soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre since 1998. Her repertoire includes Rosina in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, Olympia in LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN, Queen of Shemakha in THE GOLDEN COCKEREL, the Nightingale in LE ROSSIGNOL, Gilda in RIGOLETTO and the Bird in SIEGFRIED. Ms. Yudina’s roles also include Zerbinetta in ADRIANE AUF NAXOS, Amina in LA SONNAMBULA, the Queen of the Night in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, Konstanze in DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL, Nornia in DON PASQUALE and Musetta in LA BOHÈME.

In 2006, Ms. Yudina appeared in a DVD production of the Bastille Opera’s (Paris) IL VIAGGIO A REIMS. In January 2009 she will sang three performances of Leila in LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES at Seattle Opera and is currently touring with the Mariinsky Theatre throughout the world in Il VIAGGIO A REIMS.

WILLIAM POWERS (Sparafucile): Since making his New York City Opera debut in 1972, Chicagoan William Powers has performed over 100 operatic roles with the major opera companies in the United States, Europe, and South America. While the stylistic range of his portrayals spans the gamut from Renaissance (Monteverdi’s ORFEO for San Francisco ) to Contemporary (Pasatieri’s SEAGULL for Washington, D.C.), Mr. Powers has earned an enviable reputation as a “heavy,” due in large part to the dark, penetrating color of his voice; thus, the portrayal of rogues and villains has dominated his career. His teachers and mentors, George London and Norman Treigle, have also contributed to the dramatic intensity of his delivery, for which Mr. Powers has become well known.

Mr. Powers created many new roles through world premiers or important revivals, most recently singing the villain Meyer Wolfsheim for the premier of Harbison’s THE GREAT GATSBY at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Other new creations have included Penderecki’s PARADISE LOST for Chicago’s Lyric Opera, Herrmann’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS for Portland, Copeland’s HOLY BLOOD AND CRESCENT MOON for Cleveland and Petrassi’s SESTINA D’AUTUNNO for Italy’s Spoleto Festival. Of re-creations, Mr. Powers offered the role of Celio for the 50th anniversary production of Prokofiev’s THE LOVE OF THREE ORANGES for Chicago, Donizetti’s rarely heard BETLY for Strasbourg and the French version of Donizetti’s LA FAVORITE for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Opéra Comique in Paris. His creations also include the Italian version of THE LADY MACBETH OF THE MTZENSK DISTRICT for Spoleto and the American premiere of Handel’s PORO, RE DI INDIE for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Handel Festival.

Mr. Powers’ voice has been widely recorded and heard in hundreds of broadcasts. In 2000, he released a solo CD on the Centaur label, entitled Rogues and Villains. In 2009, he followed with yet another collection of wicked evildoers and miscreants, called The Worst of William Powers, containing dozens of arias from many under-handed characters, including Rossini’s Basilio, Dr. Bartolo, Mustafa and Don Magnifico, Verdi’s Iago from OTELLO, Beethoven’s Pizzaro, Ponchielli’s Alvise and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. The various devils Mr. Powers has reincarnated include Gounod’s Mephistopheles, Meyerbeer’s Bertram and Boito’s Mefisto. Villains the celebrated bass has portrayed include Four Villains of Offenbach’s LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN, Floyd’s Reverend Blitch, Wagner’s Alberich, Mozart’s Leporello, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Gruenberg’s Jones, and the ultimate rascal of them all, Verdi’s Falstaff.

Mr. Powers has not ignored symphonic repertoire, performing in Beethoven’s NINTH and MISSA SOLEMNIS, the requiems of Verdi, Mozart, Dvorák, Brahms and Fauré and MESSIAH, as well as many oratorios of Handel. These standards are joined by contemporary works of William Schuman and Ned Rorem, in conjunction with the symphonies of Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Dallas, as well as the symphonies of Paris, Cologne, Strasbourg, Trieste, Prague, Bratislava, Hague, Amsterdam and Vienna.

Recent performances have included the Chicago premiere of DER KAISER VON ATLANTIS, and THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (in the controversial Ratner version) for the Chicago Opera Theater. Mr. Powers performed WERTHER of Massenet for the Klangbogen Festival of Vienna, as well as the Basque National Opera of Bilbao, DEAD MAN WALKING for Cincinnati, THE DAMNATION OF FAUST for Chicago’s Grant Park Festival and the Pablo Casal’s Festival of San Juan. He sang in the Opera Gala for the Festival of the Aegean in Athens and Styros, FAUST for Trieste, THE BARBER OF SEVILLE for Charlotte and Buenos Aires, THE MAGIC FLUTE for Bozman, Maryland, and FIDELIO for Cedar Rapids.

Does William Powers feel bad about the label of evil that has been hung upon him? Not at all! As a matter of fact, he delights in it! It is not often that a person can act as bad as he wants and get away with it!

VIARA ZHELEZOVA (Maddalena/Countess Ceprano): Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Viara Zhelezova made her debut with Baltimore Opera Theatre as Rosina in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, November 2009, and was highly praised by opera critics of the BALTIMORE SUN and OPERAONLINE. Ms. Zhelezova graduated from the National Conservatory of Music and joined the roster of the Bulgarian National Opera, where she has performed leading mezzo roles alongside such singers as Ghena Dimitrova, Nicolai Giuselev and Anna Tomova Sintova. She has appeared as a guest artist with opera companies throughout Eastern and Western Europe. In the United States, Ms. Zhelezova has performed the roles of Carmen in Bizet’s masterpiece, Rosina in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, Zerlina in DON GIOVANNI, Cherubino in NOZZE DI FIGARO, Suzuki in MADAMA BUTTERFLY, and Prince Orlofsky in DIE FLEDERMAUS to outstanding critical acclaim.

HRISTO SARAFOV (Marullo): Mr. Sarafov has been active on the stage for his entire adult life as a soloist in operetta, opera and as an actor. A most talented baritone, after graduation from the National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, he was immediately engaged by the Sofia National Opera for the role of Bartolo in Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. Mr. Sarafov has been on the roster of the Sofia National Opera for many years.

VLADIMIR HRISTOV (Monterone): Bulgarian bass Vladimir Hristov graduated from the National Academy of Music in Sofia. He has been a soloist with Sofia National Opera since 1998 and is a frequent guest soloist with other regional opera companies throughout Bulgaria and Eastern Europe.

GUEORGUI DINEV: Bulgarian tenor Georgi Dinev was educated at the Actor's Academy in Natfiz. From 1995-2000, he was a soloist at the Musical Theatre “St. Makedonski” in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since 2003, Mr. Dinev has been a soloist at The Stara Zagora Opera and a frequent guest artist on the U.S. tours of Teatro Lirico D’Europa and Mozart Festival Opera. His performances as Frosch on Czech Opera Prague’s U.S. debut tour of DIE FLEDERMAUS were also highly acclaimed.

HEATHER KNIOTEK DeSIMONE (Giovanna): The Baltimore resident has sung to critical acclaim, “…melting minds and hearts with appropriate power” and “…enticing with her luminosity,” according to reviews in the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Münchner Merkur. The New York native received her undergraduate degree in classical voice from the State University of New York, Purchase College Conservatory of Music and her Master’s of Music from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. While at Peabody, the young mezzo-soprano studied under the tutelage of Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Steven Rainbolt, Thomas Grubb and John Shirley Quirk and was awarded merit-based scholarships and the Charles M. Eaton Memorial Voice Award.

Ms. Kniotek DeSimone is equally at home performing concert, oratorio and opera repertoire. Her opera credits include Spirit of Antonia’s Mother in LES CONTES D’HOFFMAN, under the direction of Garnett Bruce with Peabody Opera Theater, Mimi in LA BOHÈME with the Peabody Orchestra, The Witch in HÄNSEL UND GRETEL, and Donna Elvira in DON GIOVANNI with Purchase Opera. Ms. Kniotek DeSimone has a passion for German Lieder, verismo roles and those of the Romantic periods.

KAREN MYERS (Page): A resident of Baltimore, the young soprano has been acclaimed for her “…exquisite artistic and dramatic interpretation,” has performed extensively across the United States, as well as in Germany, Austria, Australia and Greece. Her operatic performances include Konstanze, Zerbinetta, Queen of the Night, Violetta, Gilda, Micaëla, Susanna and Clorinda, among others. Ms. Myers performed the Mad Scene from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR in both Weiz and Graz, Austria, under the baton of Edoardo Müller. She has also performed with the Baltimore Opera, Baltimore Concert Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Fort Worth Opera Outreach, Abeline Opera, Summer Opera Theater Company, Dallas Opera Project, Opera Aegean, Peabody Opera Theater, Baylor Opera Theater, and the Lyric Opera of Waco. Ms. Myers is a recipient of the George Castel Memorial Award for Outstanding Vocal Performer from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.

Equally at home in oratorio and symphonic works, Ms. Myers has been engaged as the soloist for CARMINA BURANA, JUDAS MACABEUS, Mozart’s CORONATION MASS and EXSULTATE, JUBILATE, numerous Bach’s Cantatas, the B MINOR MASS and Beethoven’s 9TH SYMPHONY. Recent solo performances include Handel’s MESSIAH, a Christmas Pops Concert, a Cole Porter/George Gershwin concert and the role of Magnolia in SHOWBOAT with the Annapolis Chorale. Ms. Meyers also sang two operatic recitals and the Fauré REQUIEM on the Mosaic Concert Series in Baltimore, ST. JOHN’S PASSION, Bach’s MAGNIFICAT, the Vivaldi MAGNIFICAT and CANTATA 51 with the Baltimore Bach Concert Series, as well as the VIVALDI MAGNIFICAT, the VIVALDI GLORIA, Handel’s UTRECHT TE DEUM and Haydn’s MISSA IN TEMPORE BELLI with the Harford Choral Society.

Ms. Myers also recently performed as soloist for the Baltimore premiere of DIRECTIONS IN SINGING by Andrew Fowler, a large work for orchestra, soloists and chorus commissioned in honor of the 300th birthday of composer Charles Wesley. She joined the Baltimore Opera two years ago for LA FORZA DEL DESTINO and MADAMA BUTTERFLY and returned last year in AÏDA and NORMA. She recently covered the role of Micaëla in Summer Opera Theater Company’s production of CARMEN at the Harman Center for the Arts. Ms. Myers is engaged to appear again this concert season as the featured soprano for Baltimore Concert Opera’s season finale, A FLIGHT OF VERDI.

GIORGIO LALOV (Artistic Director and Stage Director): Gueorgui (Giorgio) Lalov was born in Telesh, Bulgaria in June 1958. His father, “Lalo,” a doctor, and his mother, Stoiyanka, an elementary school teacher and Bulgarian folk singer, were educated patrons of the arts. When Lalo Lalov died, Giorgio was only nine years old, but because he was an excellent student, he had the good fortune to be accepted at an elite boarding school in the capital city of Bulgaria, where all the lessons were taught in French. When he graduated from high school in 1976, he was fluent in French and English. That fall he entered the Bulgarian National Academy of Music and went on tour throughout Italy with a choir from the university. While in Milan, he auditioned for the famous International School for Young Opera Singers at La Scala, was accepted and went on to make his operatic debut at La Scala at the age of 25.

After living in Italy for a short time, Mr. Lalov became fluent in Italian. In 1986, while on tour with an opera company in France, he met Yves Josse, a former ballet dancer who was booking opera and ballet tours. They became business partners. Mr. Lalov had many resources: He spoke several languages, was able organize the creation of sets and costumes in Bulgaria and put together an excellent orchestra and chorus. He also knew many fine opera singers in Bulgaria, central Europe, and the United States. By 1988, Messrs. Josse and Lalov were collaborating on what was to become the most successful opera touring company in Europe. At the time of Mr. Josse's death in 1995, Teatro Lirico presented over 250 performances a season throughout Europe.

In 1990, Mr. Lalov established the Sofia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Winter 2000 marked Teatro’s first major American tour. The reviews from the 10 consecutive tours Teatro Lirico D’Europa has completed thus far in the United States speak for the high quality and consistency of the company. The fact that the company is able to tour with many different productions is an indication of Mr. Lalov’s hard work, excellent organizational skills and unfailing dedication to the art of opera. In spring 2009, the impresario became the artistic director of Baltimore Opera Theatre. The new company will present full-scale productions of opera at Baltimore’s famous Hippodrome Theatre, featuring European and American singers and musicians as well as local talent

I'm not alone in hoping that Giorgio Lalov stays happy and healthy and continues to bring us such magnificent productions. We can only hope to see more from this company in years to come.

ILLINOIS TIMES - Ann Kerr

Conductor (TBA)

JENNY L. KELLY (Founder and President): Founder and President Jenny L. Kelly is a Baltimore native who attended the Peabody Preparatory as a middle school and high school student, studying voice with the late Thelma Viol. She graduated from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey in 1981 with a degree in Voice Performance. While there, Ms. Kelly was the recipient of two vocal scholarship awards and a member of the elite 24-voice Westminster Choir – the choir in residence at The Spoleto Festival USA and Spoleto Festival, Italy, for four consecutive summers. In 1982, she was awarded a four-year, full scholarship to the esteemed opera-training program at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where she studied with the late Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Nell Rankin.

Ms. Kelly performed as a principal soloist in over 300 productions of operas throughout Europe and the United States and was a top prizewinner in many national and international opera competitions, including the Palm Beach Opera National Competition, the Baltimore Opera National Competition, the Luciano Pavarotti International Competition, The Metropolitan Opera National Council Awards and The Belvedere International Opera Competition in Vienna. She was also the recipient of several scholarships from the Miss America Pageant Foundation.

Ms. Kelly has always had a love of the arts and writing. Her poetry has been published in several American anthologies, including two anthologies published by Black Tie Press of Houston, Texas. In August 1993, Ms. Kelly married Gueorgui Lalov (Giorgio), a Bulgarian opera impresario. In 1998, she established her own performing arts agency in the United States, through which she has booked over 500 performances of opera and ballet in 105 different American theaters in the last ten years. She is responsible for making the proposals to the theaters, scheduling the performance dates for the U.S. tours (as many as 100 dates in a given season) and creating the marketing and program needs of the theaters for her productions. Ms. Kelly has successfully produced three performances of ballet and two performances of opera in Baltimore in the last five years at three major venues. Ms. Kelly enjoys interior decorating, small breed dogs and artwork of mythological and biblical themes.

Ms. Kelly’s father, Spencer Thomas Kelly II, now aged 89, was a professional child actor and performed at the Hippodrome Theatre with Uncle Jack’s Kiddy Club! Her son, Christian Lalov, is a freshman at The Carver Center for the Arts in Towson. Ms. Kelly’s mother, Millicent T. Kelly, retired from her over 50-year career at Johns Hopkins Hospital. At Johns Hopkins, the elder Ms. Kelly served as a nutritionist in Pediatric Neurology, administering the controversial ketogenic diet that treats epilepsy without the use of drugs.

Act I

Scene 1.

At a ball at the ducal court of Mantua, the hunchbacked jester Rigoletto mocks the courtiers cuckolded by the profligate Duke, stirring them to plans of vengeance. Count Monterone appeals to the Duke for the return of his dishonoured daughter, but is cruelly mocked by Rigoletto. Enraged, Monterone calls down a father's curse on the terrified jester.

Scene 2.

Outside his house Rigoletto encounters Sparafucile, a professional assassin, but has no need of his services. Rigoletto warns his daughter Gilda to remain concealed in their home. She does not reveal to him that she has fallen in love with a handsome young man she has encountered on her way to church. The object of her affections is the Duke, who appears as soon as Rigoletto has left, bribing Gilda's nurse to admit him and to speak well of him to Gilda. He tells her he is a poor student. After he leaves, the courtiers come to abduct Gilda, believing her to be Rigoletto's mistress. They trick Rigoletto into assisting them, assuring him that it is the Countess Ceprano they are abducting from the neighboring house. When he realizes what has happened, he is distraught. He remembers the curse.

Act II

The courtiers describe their abduction of Gilda to the Duke. He is delighted to discover that she has been brought to his palace and awaits him in his bedroom. Rigoletto now enters, feigning indifference, but desperately seeking signs of the whereabouts of his daughter. When he realizes what has happened, he first curses, then pleads with the courtiers for her return, but to no avail. Gilda appears en deshabille, and Rigoletto swears vengeance on the Duke.

Act III

The Duke has been lured to a remote inn by Sparafucile's sister Maddalena. Rigoletto has paid Sparafucile to kill the Duke and to deliver his body in a sack so that he may, himself, throw it into the Mincio River. Rigoletto brings Gilda with him to spy on the inn, hoping to reinforce the notion that the Duke is not a man of honour in affairs of the heart. Gilda is unimpressed. Rigoletto sends her home to change into men's clothing for their flight to Verona. Infatuated with the Duke herself, Maddalena begs her brother to spare him and to murder the jester instead. His sense of professional responsibility offended, Sparafucile refuses, but does go so far as to agree that if anyone else should happen to show up at the inn on this wild and stormy night, he will murder them instead. Gilda, returning and hearing all this, sees her chance to help the man she loves. She boldly walks up to the door of the inn, knocks, is admitted and promptly stabbed and stuffed into the sack for Rigoletto. Rigoletto is just about to throw the sack in the river when he hears the Duke still singing in the inn. Wildly, he opens the sack to find his dying daughter, who with her last breath assures him that she will pray for him with her mother in heaven. Again, Rigoletto recalls Monterone's curse.

Understanding Verdi's RIGOLETTO

by Jenny L. Kelly

Giuseppe Verdi produced RIGOLETTO in 1851. It is a work of profound majesty and visceral strength that began the great middle period of his career. In his early operas, Verdi honored the conventions of Italian opera; with RIGOLETTO he transformed them. The characters are all drawn with insight and compassion and maintain their musical individuality in ensembles as well as solos, nowhere more imaginatively than in the magnificent last act quartet that captures four voices in a blend of contradictory emotions.

In order to escape Austrian censorship which was wide spread in Italy at the time Verdi composed RIGOLETTO, he used the play of Victor Hugo entitled 'The King Amuses Himself.' By changing the names of Francis I to the Duke of Mantua and Tribouletto to Rigoletto, Verdi was able to disguise frank commentary on a decadent society that would otherwise have been considered a scandal.

Before the opera begins, the Duke of Mantua, an absolute ruler who seduces women as he pleases, and his hunchback court jester, Rigoletto, his accomplice and henchman, have abducted Count Monterone's daughter and the unfortunate woman has committed suicide.

As the curtain is raised on Act I, in the court of Mantua, cruel and foolish men and women of pleasure flatter the Duke while dancing. They gossip about Rigoletto, whom they wrongfully suspect is secretly keeping a young lover in his home. The young woman in Rigoletto's house is in fact his daughter, Gilda, whom he dearly loves. The relationship between father and daughter is at the heart of RIGOLETTO, a motif often revisited in the operas of Verdi, a man who, sadly, never achieved the state of happy fatherhood in his own life.

The courtiers conspire with the Duke to play a joke on Rigoletto. Believing that Gilda is Rigoletto's lover, the womanizing Duke disguises himself and takes advantage of her. Tragically, the naive Gilda falls in love with him. After realizing the Duke has seduced his daughter, Rigoletto tries to cover his despair and anger with jokes, but determines to take revenge and hires Sparafucile; an assassin, to kill the Duke. Rigoletto loses his sense of life. Gilda was for him the only beam of light among the low passions of his work, which he was forced by nature to do.

This dilemma is the “curse” of Rigoletto. Verdi had first intended to entitle the opera THE CURSE, but later decided upon RIGOLETTO. The character of Rigoletto stands at the center of the opera in all his complexity and inconsistency. Deformed in outward appearance, he nonetheless cherishes a secret that makes up the better half of his nature; his emotions as an anxious, loving father.

The original play has passages where the spoken word can not adequately to do justice to his feelings. In the opera, the eloquence of song and the intensity of the orchestral sound are essential in projecting the portrayal of the broken hearted father's suffering and the complex depiction of his mental conflict.

In his notes Verdi wrote “For my part, I would like to see the character shown as deformed and ridiculous in outward appearance, but passionate and full of love within. It is for these qualities that I chose the subject.” When Gilda understands that her father has hired an assassin to kill the Duke, she decides to die in his place. Disguised as a man, she replaces the Duke.

To the play of Victor Hugo, Verdi adds the theme of predestination. Rigoletto is punished first by fate, by his physical deformity, and secondly because of his disgraceful position of “fool” in society. His conspiracy with the criminal Sparafucile and desire for revenge secure his tragic destiny. His beloved daughter dies because of his own assassination order.

The story is a work of art presenting an excellent balance between the light and shadows of human emotions, between drama and comedy, between honesty and deception. As the drama gradually unfolds against this backdrop of contrasts, the truth emerges and the opera concludes with the (predestined) destruction of the unhappy heroes - Rigoletto and Gilda, who symbolically represent man’s relationship to his eternal soul. Rigoletto's deformity mirrors his internal spiritual crisis and imbalance. He betrays his own heart, resulting in the dissolution of his personality and the loss of his soul.