El Duque de Mantua seduce y deshonra a cuantas mujeres desea, matando a sus padres y esposos sin miramientos. Rigoletto, su bufón, es su cómplice en todas estas barbaridades, pero ha estado criando a una hija en secreto y con ella es un padre atento y cariñoso que hace lo posible para proteger a Gilda. Pero Rigoletto se convierte en víctima de sus propios crímenes, ya que es cómplice del secuestro de su propia hija, y uno de los culpables de su muerte.
Opera
Rigoletto
Giuseppe Verdi
02 Dec, 23 - 02 Jan, 24
Musical Conductor: Nicola Luisotti y Christoph Koncz | Stage direction: Miguel del Arco | Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real

Miguel del Arco, stage director, is known for being the director of the play Jauría, which inspired this new production. On this occasion, and to show this libretto of drama, passion, deceit and revenge, performed more than 300 times at the Teatro Real, the stage director will use the courtship and kidnapping of Gilda, the protagonist's daughter, to emphasise the helplessness of a woman in the face of a group of men in which society's concept of masculinity is discussed. With the great voices of Javier Camarena, Xabier Anduaga, Ludovic Tézier, Adela Zaharia and Julie Fuchs.
To elevate a jester to a tragic stature comparable of a Macbeth or a Lear is not an easy feat; even more so when it was the first time in the history of opera. The dramatic essence of Shakespeare runs in the veins of this Rigoletto, although, in reality, the story is based on the controversial Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo.
This opera was prohibited in France for more than fifty years, but the Austrian censors authorized it by demoting the king in the title to a duke to diminish the magnitude of the assassination - or in an attempt - which constitutes the crux of the plot. However, they overlooked the crucial monologues of the jester —«Pari siamo» and «Cortigiani»—, transformed, thanks to the music of Verdi, in two unsuspected expressions of protest and social resentment.
Many-sided, as perhaps no other opera by Verdi - tender but also cruel, interspersed with remarkable strokes of black humour—, Rigoletto is also a heart-wrenching study about parent-child love: a fable about an overprotective father and filial emancipation resolved by the excessive gesturing of the Grand Guignol.
Melodramma in three acts
Music by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the theatre play Le roi s’amuse (1832) by Victor Hugo
Premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851
Premiere at the Teatro Real on 18 October 1853
New production of the Teatro Real, in co-production with ABAO Bilbao Ópera and Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla
Artistic Team
Musical conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Christoph Koncz __ 18, 26, 29 dec; 2 jan
Stage direction: Miguel del Arco
Set design: Sven Jonke (Numen/For Use) + Ivana Jonke
Costume design: Ana Garay
Lighting: Juan Gómez-Cornejo
Choreography: Luz Arcas
Chorus Master: José Luis Basso
Cast
Duke of Mantua: Javier Camarena __ 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 30 dec
Xabier Anduaga __ 3, 7, 10, 13, 18, 29 dec; 2 jan
John Osborn __ 6, 12, 15, 19, 23, 26 dec
Rigoletto: Ludovic Tézier __ 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 30 dec
Étienne Dupuis __ 3, 7, 10, 13, 18, 29 dec
Quinn Kelsey __ 6, 12, 15, 19, 26 dec; 2 jan
Gilda: Adela Zaharia __ 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 30 dec
Julie Fuchs __ 3, 7, 10, 13, 18, 29 dec
Ruth Iniesta __ 6, 12, 15, 19, 26 dec; 2 jan
Sparafucile: Simon Lim _ 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 18 dec; 2 jan
Peixin Chen _3, 7, 13, 17, 19, 20, 23, 29 dec
Gianluca Buratto _ 6, 10, 12, 15, 26, 27, 30 dec
Maddalena: Marina Viotti __ 2, 5, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 30 dec; 2 jan
Ramona Zaharia __ 3, 7, 10, 13, 18, 26, 29 dec
Martina Belli __ 12, 15, 19 dec
Giovanna: Cassandre Berthon __ 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 30 dec
Marifé Nogales __ 3, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 26, 29 dec; 2 jan
Count Monterone: Jordan Shanahan __ 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 30 dec
Fernando Radó __ 3, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 26, 29 dec; 2 jan
Marullo: César San Martín
Matteo Borsa: Fabián Lara __ 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 30 dec
Josep Fadó __ 3, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 26, 29 dec; 2 jan
Count Ceprano: Tomeu Bibiloni
Countess Ceprano: Sandra Pastrana
Pageboy: Inés Ballesteros
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real
Synopsis of Rigoletto
Artistic information
Artistic team
Cast
Performances
- Date/hour
- Space
- Cast
- Subscription ticket
02 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
03 December 2023
18:00
Main Auditorium
05 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
06 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
07 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
08 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
10 December 2023
18:00
Main Auditorium
11 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
12 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
13 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
14 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
15 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
17 December 2023
18:00
Main Auditorium
18 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
19 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
20 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
23 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
26 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
27 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
29 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
30 December 2023
19:30
Main Auditorium
02 January 2024
19:30
Main Auditorium
Parallel activities
Enfoques
Ponemos el foco sobre la producción de Rigoletto con algunos de sus protagonistas.
28
November
2023
20:15
Conferencia
De Rigoletto a Senso: la revolución pasiva del Risorgimento
En colaboración con la Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Enero
00
00
00
00
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