Image courtesy the Florentine Opera
Florentine Opera - Rigoletto
The Florentine Opera returns to grand opera with its upcoming production of Giuseppe Verdi’s revolutionary opera, Rigoletto. Performed at the Marcus Performing Arts Center’s Uihlein Hall on Oct. 8 and Oct. 10, it is the Florentine’s first work to be staged before a full audience since pandemic restrictions were put in place in 2020. In all 185 artists and technical crew have been deployed to recreate this masterpiece. They include Maestro Fransesco Milioto conducting, stage director Omer Ben Seadia and principals Scott Quinn as Rigoletto, Jessica Jones as Gilda and Alan Higgs singing the role of the Duke.
Rigoletto had already been shut down twice before it opened in Venice in 1851. Victor Hugo play’s Le Roi s’amuse, on which Rigoletto is based, was closed after a single performance by censors not for depicting moral depravity but for its setting in the king’s court with the king himself as the evil character. The second time, Verdi’s original version did not even reach the stage. However, by renaming his characters and placing the action in the court of a duke, the opera was allowed to go on.
The plot is a dark one. The court jester Rigoletto mocks a nobleman whose daughter has been seduced by the Duke of Mantua. The nobleman curses Rigoletto. Then, Rigoletto’s own daughter, Gilda, is kidnapped and delivered to the duke to become his next conquest. Set on revenge, Rigoletto hires an assassin to kill the duke. The plot then careens out of control and the curse is fulfilled.
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Timeless Themes
Given the opera’s timeless themes of love, moral corruption and authoritarianism, Rigoletto could easily be set in the present. However, director Ben Seadia, explains why the Florentine decided on Verdi’s original 15th century setting. “Verdi wrote a piece that transcends time and place. We’ve kept the original time period and location to allow the audience to take a step away their present state, to allow the audience to have perspective. The audience is part of the opera. We hint at our current society and they bring that baggage and context with them. We don’t have to remind them.” Ben Seadia said.
Even at the time of its premiere, Verdi’s music struck critics as light compared to the weighty and tragic storyline. Ben Saedia again clarifies this seeming contradiction. “Part of it is that Verdi found a way to make the medicine go down. He makes sure that he coded the poignant themes in easily communicable music. But the funny thing is, that is a way to soften the blow. If you lecture an audience about social cruelty, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. If you write brilliant, emotional and intellectual music, the message is delivered.” That seems abundantly clear in the opera’s most memorably pleasant tune, “La donna mobile” that delivers a message of toxic masculinity.
Ben Seadia alludes to another inadvertently timely aspect of the opera. “When any form of art talks about politics, it asks questions, allowing discussion about that. So many of these pieces were written truly as feminist pieces whether the librettist and composer knew it or not. It wasn’t Verdi’s job to write about Intersectionality. Yet, whether he knows it or not, he is writing it. He could have named the work, Gilda.”
Sung in Italian with English supertitles. Pre-opera talks take place one hour prior to curtain. Rigoletto runs three hours with one intermission.
COVID-19 Protocol: Proof of vaccination or negative test within 72 hours of performance.
For tickets, visit florentineopera.org
