RT Roma
🚌🎼 Torna #LineaOpera, l'iniziativa inaugurata lo scorso anno da @OperaRoma. Martedì 1/8 agosto dai 15 Municipi di Roma partiranno bus per le #TermeDiCaracalla, dove alle 21 i partecipanti potranno assistere - al prezzo di 5 euro - a #Rigoletto di Verdi 👉http://bit.ly/linea-opera-2023

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/Roma/status/1684910324766420992

Always striking how Verdi (and/or possibly Victor Hugo) just disregards dramatic structure completely for this piece, and how well it works. There is no suspense in the sense of how it's going to play out. From almost the opening scene you know it's going to go badly, and once Gilda is introduced it is perfectly clear exactly how it's going to go badly. #Rigoletto

Gilda's "Such grief, such tears!" duet with #Rigoletto uses a motif very similar to that appearing in the Act II duet between Germont (senior) and Violetta in La Traviata.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yXFOiSoodDI&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE&t=296

When watching #Rigoletto interact with his doomed daughter Gilda, one cannot help but be extremely aware - as in La Traviata - that Verdi had an unreasonable amount of experience in watching women he loved die.

From a letter Verdi wrote many years after the central tragedy of his life:

"My small son fell ill at the beginning of April: the doctors could not discover what was wrong, and the poor child died painfully, in the arms of his desperate mother. But this was no enough: a few days later the young girl also fell ill!…and this illness also proved fatal!…and even this was not enough: in the first days of June my young wife was struck down by violent encephalitis and on 19 June 1840 a third coffin left my house!… I was alone!…alone!…In the space of about two months, the three people most dear to me had vanished for ever: my family had been destroyed."

I went into some more detail on this in my Opera Club posts about La Traviata: http://tleaves.com/post/la-traviata-part-i/

"Quel vecchio maladivami" is the name of my punk rock band. #Rigoletto

Sparafucile, the assassin Rigoletto meets and later hires, is wearing a FABULOUS full length leather trenchcoat #Rigoletto

Riker googling "Why doesn't Monterone's curse affect the Duke of Mantua?" #Rigoletto

He DOES curse the Duke! It just doesn't take in that case, apparently. It's well-known that curses are more effective on clowns. #Rigoletto

Count Monterone (the aggrieved father who curses #Rigoletto (but apparently not the Duke? Bad aim my dude) is costumed like the most famous photo of Victor Hugo. Presumably this is not an accident.

True story about #Rigoletto: originally it was based on a Alexandre Dumas (fils) story called "Le Roi s'Amuse", "The King Amuses Himself". Censors demanded Verdi change the King to a Duke, to not run afoul of lèse-majesté.

This happened a lot in the arts, and a lot to Verdi. This is why Un Ballo in Maschera takes place in Boston and involves an assassination plot against a Count, rather than against Gustav III of Sweden.

Il #27dicembre 1888 nasceva a #Lecce #TitoSchipa, il maggior tenore di grazia della storia dell'opera. Debuttò trionfalmente a Chicago nel 1919 con #Rigoletto. In Usa restò 15 anni, misurandosi e rivaleggiando con #Caruso.

#ilbortoneficio

Two of the summer festivals where I'll be performing roles next year announced their 2023 seasons last week!

Firstly: I'm so glad to be returning to Opera Holland Park next summer (who gave me my first professional opera contract) to sing the role of Contessa Ceprano in "Rigoletto" - this was supposed to happen in 2020, so I'm thrilled it's finally happening! We've performances 30 May - 24 June🃏

#opera #verdi #rigoletto #singer #mezzosoprano #mezzo #operasinger #contessaceprano #classicalmusic

Currently amassing a headcanon where the assassin Sparafucile has brothers named Sperafutile and Spurafacile and Sporafugile. And maybe one called 'Sparagofagiole.

#Opera #Verdi #Rigoletto

Currently amassing a headcanon where the assassin Sparafucile has brothers named Sperafutile and Spurafacile and Sporafugile. And maybe one called 'Sparagofagiole.

#Opera #Verdi #Rigoletto

Wie versprochen das Foto nachgereicht: Seebühne zu #Rigoletto (2019-2021)

Da 2020 COVID-bedingt eine Saison durcheinander gekommen war, hatte dieses eindrucksvolle Bühnenbild eine Lebensdauer von ausnahmsweise 3 Jahre.