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The Metropolitan Opera

Stage director

Bartlett Sher

Set designer

Set designer (+2)

Michael Yeargan

Costume designer

Costume designer (+2)

Catherine Zuber

Lighting designer

Donald Holder

Orchestra

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera Berlin )

Metropolitan Opera House

Chorus

Metropolitan Opera Choir

Chorusmaster

Chorusmaster (+2)

Tilman Michael

Tenor (+3)

Scott Scully

Matteo Borsa

Bass-baritone (+3)

Jeongcheol Cha

Marullo

Bass-baritone (+6)

Christopher Job

The Count of Ceprano

Alto (+2)

Mikki Sodergren

A page

Mezzo-soprano (+3)

Eve Gigliotti

Giovanna

Conductor

Pier Giorgio Morandi

Baritone (+3)

Quinn Kelsey

Rigoletto

Mezzo-soprano (+2)

J'Nai Bridges

Maddalena

Bass (+5)

Soloman Howard

Sparafucile

Jordan Shanahan

The Count of Monterone

Soprano (+1)

Susanne Burgess

The Countess of Ceprano

Soprano (+2)

Nadine Sierra

Gilda

Tenor

Stephen Costello

The Duke of Mantua

Erin Morley

Rihab Chaieb

Bass (+2)

Ante Jerkunica

Baritone (+2)

Blake Denson

Luca Salsi

Pene Pati

Daniele Callegari

Edyta Kulczak

Tessa McQueen

Lindsay Martin

Pavel Valuzhin

Baritone (+5)

Michael Chioldi

Derrick Inouye

Zach Borichevsky

Verdi’s heartbreaking masterpiece returns, with reigning Verdi baritone Quinn Kelsey reprising his devastating portrayal of the hunchbacked court jester. Radiant soprano Nadine Sierra is his naïve daughter, Gilda, and tenor Stephen Costello is the rakish Duke of Mantua, with Maestro Pier Giorgio Morandi on the podium to conduct Bartlett Sher’s Weimar-inspired production. A second run of performances features the Met debut of rising tenor Pene Pati, alongside soprano Erin Morley and baritone Luca Salsi, conducted by Maurizio Benini.
World premiere: Teatro la Fenice, Venice, 1851. A dramatic journey of undeniable force, Rigoletto was immensely popular from its premiere and remains fresh and powerful to this day. The story, based on a controversial play by Victor Hugo, tells of an outsider—a hunchbacked jester—who struggles to balance the dueling elements of beauty and evil that exist in his life. Written during the most fertile period of Verdi’s artistic life, the opera resonates with a universality that is frequently called Shakespearean.

Creators
In a remarkable career spanning six decades in the theater, Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) composed 26 operas, at least half of which are at the core of today’s repertoire. His role in Italy’s cultural and political development has made him an icon in his native country. Francesco Maria Piave (1810–76), Verdi’s librettist for Rigoletto, collaborated with him on ten works, including Ernani, La Traviata, La Forza del Destino, and the original versions of Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra.
Victor Hugo’s 1832 play Le Roi s’Amuse, set at the court of King François I of France (circa 1520), is a blatant depiction of depraved authority. In adapting it, Verdi and Piave fought with the Italian censors and eventually settled on moving the story to the non-royal Renaissance court of Mantua, while holding firm on the core issues of the drama. In the Met’s production, the action unfolds in Weimar Germany in the 1920s, a time and place with surprising parallels to the decadent—and dangerous—world of the original setting.

Music
Rigoletto contains a wealth of melody, including one that is among the world’s most famous: “La donna è mobile.” All the opera’s solos are rich with character insight and dramatic development. The famous Act III quartet, “Bella figlia dell’amore,” is an ingenious musical analysis of the diverging reactions of the four principals in the same moment: the Duke’s music rises with urgency and impatience, Gilda’s droops with disappointment, Rigoletto’s remains measured and paternal, while the promiscuous Maddalena is literally all over the place. In the context of the opera, the merely lovely music becomes inspired drama.

Conductor
Pier Giorgio Morandi
Performed
Sep 30
Oct 4,8,12,17,20,23,26
Nov 1,4,8

Conductor
Daniele Callegari
Performed
Jan 6,8,11,16,19

Conductor
Derrick Inouye
Performing
Jan 24

Gilda
Nadine Sierra
Performed
Sep 30
Oct 4,8,12,17,20,23,26
Nov 1,4

Gilda
Erin Morley
Performing
Nov 8
Jan 6,8,11,16,19,24

Maddalena
J’Nai Bridges
Performed
Sep 30
Oct 4,8,12,17,20,23,26
Nov 1,4,8

Maddalena
Rihab Chaieb
Performing
Jan 6,8,11,16,19,24

Duke of Mantua
Stephen Costello
Performed
Sep 30
Oct 4,8,12,17,20,26
Nov 1,4,8

Duke of Mantua
Pavel Valuzhin
Performed
oct 20,23

Duke of Mantua
Pene Pati
Performing
Jan 6,8,11,19,24

Duke of Mantua
Zach Borichevsky
Performed
Jan 16

Rigoletto
Quinn Kelsey
Performed
Sep 30
Oct 4,8,12,17,20,23,26
Nov 1,4,8

Rigoletto
Luca Salsi
Performed
Jan 6,8,11,16,19

Rigoletto
Michael Chioldi
Performing
Jan 24

Sparafucile
Soloman Howard
Performing
Sep 30
Oct 4,8,12,17
Jan 6,8,11,16,19,24

Sparafucile
Ante Jerkunica
Performed
Oct 20,23,26
Nov 1,4,8

Fotografies