A controversial opera from the mid-1800s, censors fought hard against it when it came out, both for aesthetical reasons and for its content. Set in the intellectually lively court of the Duke of Mantua, the action veers quickly to crime, only to have the libertine protagonist escape punishment because an angel-like maiden, Gilda, will pay for him. Commissioned in 1850 by the Fenice Theatre of Venice, the Rigoletto is the first opera of Verdi’s maturity, and it is more structured and articulated. Verdi wrote most of the score in a mere forty days, its premiere triumphed, and the Rigoletto has been popular ever since. Opera director Damiano Michieletto realized his version for the National Opera in Amsterdam in 2017 and now presents it in Venice. His Rigoletto has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital after losing his mind over his causing the death of his daughter.
