Rigoletto by Verdi, Dg. 06 Oct. 2024, De (2024/2024), Dirigit per Aron Stiehl, Director musical Friedrich Praetorius, Maximilian Otto, Opernhaus Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany

Buffoon and outsider, scourging mocker and target of ridicule - Rigoletto, the jester at the court of Mantua, is both victim and perpetrator, a wounded soul who hurts others. His sharp tongue seems to know no bounds. When he reviles Monterone, whose daughter the Duke has seduced, he thinks he is on the safe side. But when Monterone curses him, Rigoletto is hit at his most vulnerable point: the fool is a father himself and guards his beloved daughter with suspicion. Nevertheless, he cannot prevent Gilda from going her own way. As fate would have it, the supposed student who awakens her love is none other than the Duke. Rigoletto realizes too late what is going on behind his back. Unaware, he falls into the trap set for him by his enemies at court. When Rigoletto realizes that his daughter has already fallen into the duke's hands, he is seized by an unbridled desire for revenge. The unscrupulous seducer is to die and Gilda is to recognize his true character. But Gilda's love causes Rigoletto's revenge plan to fail. Instead of the seducer's death, the fool causes the death of his own child. While he finds the dying woman, the duke lives on carefree. And so Monterone's curse is fulfilled. With music that contrasts the gripping plot to great effect, Rigoletto is considered Verdi's first masterpiece. In his Chemnitz debut, director Aron Stiehl, artistic director of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt since 2020, focuses on the relationship between a father driven by fear of loss and his teenage daughter striving for emancipation.