Giuseppe Verdi RIGOLETTO 170 min

Opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi that had its world opening night in 1851 in the Venetian theatre La Fenice, is one of the most frequently performed operas of this Italian composer. Verdi was inspired by the literary drama of Victor Hugo Le roi s'amuse and his character of the jester, who will become a protagonist of his opera. Verdi said about the drama: Perhaps it will be the greatest drama of modern theatre and the protagonist is a character worthy of Shakespeare. For the libretto he turned to his faithful librettist Francesco Maria Piave with whom he had good cooperation, but the Austrian censorship found the plot disgustingly immoral, obscene and trivial. At the same time, it was impossible to approve an opera in which the main character is the king, therefore Verdi placed the plot of his opera at the court of the playboy Duke of Mantua, and the main character and the title of the opera is the jester named Rigoletto, after the French word rigoler that means laugh loudly, but also mock. In this famous opera, one aria became very popular right from its very first performance, the aria La donna è mobile sung by the immoral Duke. The love tragedy of Rigoletto's only daughter Gilda is the focus of this masterpiece of opera art that after more than 15 years is once again staged at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. The conductor is Pier Giorgio Morandi, and the stage director is Francesco Maestrini.