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Rigoletto
Opéra Bastille - from 27 May to 27 June 2017
Rigoletto
Giuseppe Verdi
Opéra Bastille - from 27 May to 27 June 2017
2h35 with 1 interval
Language : Italian
About
In few words:
"The moment of vengeance has finally come. For thirty da ys I have waited, Weeping tears of blood, behind the mask of a buffoon."Rigoletto, Acte III
In Victor Hugo’s luxuriant drama Le Roi s’amuse, Verdi found theatre worthy of Shakespeare. Such, at least, were his enthusiastic words when he urged his librettist Piave to scour all Venice to find someone with sufficient influence to get his new opera past the censors unscathed. Alas, conventional morality rose up in protest and it proved impossible. Verdi’s hunchbacked jester is one of the most complex and tormented figures in the entire operatic repertoire: monstrous and heartbreaking, grotesque and sublime, this tragically doomed father who seeks to save his daughter from the clutches of the duke, will be the one to kill her. The role reaches its apogee in the aria “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata”, in which the descending movement, from Rigoletto’s explosion of rage to his begging, confirms Verdi’s capacity to adapt traditional bel canto to the demands of theatrical verisimilitude. This is director Claus Guth’s first production for the Paris Opera.
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Rigoletto
Melodramma in three acts (1851)
After Victor Hugo, Le Roi s'amuse
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Performances
Book your tickets today with the Season Pass
Available in audiodescription
Advantages
Full
Book your tickets today with the Season Pass
Available in audiodescription
Advantages
Full
Gallery
Videos clips
Audio clips
Rigoletto - Giuseppe Verdi
Backstage
© Bernd Uhlig
Article
Schönberg, Verdi, Wagner and Berlioz: the commitment to cycles
A fresh look at season 15/16
05’
During
the summer break, we offer our readers a retrospective glaze on Stéphane
Lissner’s first season at the Paris Opera. The rhythm of season 15/16 was
marked by recurring “rendez-vous” with composers whose work, essential or
enigmatic, appeals to invention and discovery. Between revivals of timeless
productions and creations, these diverse companionships set the tone for an
eclectic operatic season, revealing the inexhaustible quality of the Paris
Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
"Dare!"
"Vibrate!"
"Desire!"
© Christophe Pelé/OnP
Article
Rigoletto’s cardboard box
A performance, a recollection
04’
Frédéric Crozat, Benoît Dheilly and Jean-Yves Dary :
When the scenographer’s model arrives at the design office, our mission is to respect it scrupulously so that it can become a physical reality: we then evaluate what is feasible or not and draw up the set plans, taking into account the mechanical constraints and general safety considerations specific to each of the two theatres.
First, we need to ensure that the sets as conceived can actually work on stage. Two people whom we call the “implanters” verify the feasibility of the set, tableau by tableau, with the aid of models that show how the elements of the set will move on stage as the story progresses. This work will condition the construction of the set elements. For Rigoletto’s box we asked ourselves all sorts of questions: at the end of the performance, how is it packed away? During a performance is it fixed or is it mobile? How many artists will be standing on it? If all sets are unique in their genre, those for Rigoletto posed several problems: there were numerous mechanical elements that had to be set in place since the cardboard box does not stop changing, opening, growing and shrinking throughout the entire opera…
During the second stage, the artists and project designers in the design office create the building plans for the sets for each of the workshops. Beyond the highly technical aspect of our job, the aesthetic quality of our work is essential: a set is, above all, “the art of deception”. It is always a highly precise approach. The funny thing with Rigoletto was that the model we were given was already made out of cardboard. So, we used it to measure the corrugations in the material to recreate them as realistically as possible. Then it was a question of finding the right material: here, as often, it was polystyrene covered in fiberglass. Finally, the paint workshop set about finding the right colour tones to best recreate the appearance of cardboard. In this way, we were able to make swatches which we showed to the set designer prior to them being chosen.
We never judge a director’s aesthetic choice: our freedom only extends to the choice of techniques that we use. However, it is interesting to know the spirit of a production; here, the scenographer explained to us that the cardboard box was meant to translate the hero’s psychological confinement: the spectator lives the drama through the eyes of a broken Rigoletto reliving the tragedy that caused the death of his daughter Gilda.
Each set is unique, and to see the end result of our work, from the model as it was initially designed through to the real life set, is particularly gratifying, all the more so given that it all occurs over a very short period of time. Each season, we’re left with wonderful memories and Rigoletto was a beautiful adventure.
Interviewed by Juliette Puaux
03:49’
Video
Mikhail Timoshenko
Performing in Wozzeck and Rigoletto
If you have never heard Mikhail Timoshenko at the Opera, you can discover him in Jean-Stéphane Bron’s film L'Opéra, currently showing in cinemas. The director filmed the young baritone's arrival in Paris and his debuts at the Academy. He has just finished singing in Les Fêtes d’Hébé at the Amphitheatre and is soon to perform in Wozzeck (Erster Handwerksbursch) and Rigoletto (Il Conte di Ceprano). We followed him through the corridors of the Opéra Bastille, between two rehearsal studios, asking him this question: "What is life like at the Academy? "
03:03’
Video
Walking in Rigoletto’s shoes
Meeting Željko Lučić
Serbian baritone Željko Lučić is currently playing Rigoletto at the Opéra Bastille. In this production directed by Claus Guth, Verdi's famous buffoon is accompanied by a double, a silent character interpreted by the actor Henri Bernard Guizirian. Octave followed the two men backstage, before their entrance, as they take possession of their character.
Partners
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With the support of AROP
Media and technical partners
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Media partnership
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Media partnership