Organization

Conductor

Francesco Rosa

Stage director

Pier Francesco Maestrini

Singer

Baritone

Daniel Luis de Vicente

Rigoletto

Tenor

Martin Sušnik

The Duke of Mantua

Marian Pop

Jaki Jurgec

Soprano

Nika Gorič

Gilda

Valentina Čuden

Bass

Dragoljub Bajić

Sparafucile

Contralto

Irena Petkova

Maddalena

Mezzo-soprano

Mojca Potrč

Giovanna

Sebastijan Čelofiga

Marullo

Bogdan Stopar

Matteo Borsa

Petra Crnjac

The Countess of Ceprano

Alfonz Kodrič

The Count of Ceprano

Terezija Potočnik

A page

Bojan Hinteregger

A court usher

Valentin Pivovarov

The Count of Monterone

Opera and Ballet of Slovene National Theatre Maribor

Others

Opera Choir of the Slovene National Theater Maribor

Orchestra

Maribor Slovenian State Opera Orchestra

Italian

Maribor

Slovenia

Rigoletto Verdi

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Viola da gamba

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Writing and performance

Bass-baritone

Countertenor

Alto

Child vocalist

Continuo

Silent

Spoken

Full Video Recording from the LIVE performance of  the opera "Rigoletto" by Giuseppe Verdi, at the National Opera Company of Maribor, Slovenia.

Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi's opera Rigoletto is still today, after a large time gap since its creation, to be understood as a revolutionary masterpiece of the opera composer, who with the following two operas, Troubadour and La traviata, finally established his international reputation as the most important representative of Italian opera. The fact that Verdi took a meaningful and important step forward with Rigoletto in the direction of more intense musical drama is reflected in the composer's own perception, since for many years after the premiere on March 11, 1851 in Venice's La Fenice theater, Verdi considered the opera Rigoletto as his best work. In Rigoletto, Verdi abandoned the search for more pompous sound effects and opted for a more subtle and refined orchestration. The musical flow, which in Verdi's earlier works still shows a sharp demarcation of vocals and instrumental accompaniment,

The score itself offers many iconic musical "points", among which Gilda's aria Caro nome, Vojvod's cancona La donna è mobile and the quartet Un dì, se ben rammentomi - Bella figlia dell'amore stand out, while the libretto in verses It shows Francesca Maria Piave as a psychologically in-depth "reading" of the opera's characters, who are basically connected by an irreconcilable triangle between the licentious Duke of Mantua, the hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda, who succumbs to the fickle Duke's love charms. The curse pronounced by Count Monterone on the Duke and Rigoletto, and in general the "metaphysics of evil", which Verdi felt firsthand in 1839 after the tragic loss of his first wife Margherita Barezzi and his two children Virginia and Icilia, thus turn out to be central the instrument of the opera's tragedy. Said curse, uttered by Count Monterone over the Duke and Rigoletto, like an idée fixe, it is attached to the very backbone of the stage action, as Verdi himself wrote in his letter to the librettist Piave: "The curse, which represents the basic theme, also has a moral meaning. The unfortunate father, who complains about the lost honor of his daughter, the insane fool (Rigoletta, op. a.), who mocks him, and his curse is realized with special violence …”

From the point of view of the musical representation of the aforementioned curse, Verdi uses a reminiscence motif in the form of a repeated chord, which appears in the performance of the trumpet and trombone already in the first bars of the opera, and then several times and for the last time at the moment when Rigoletto is horrified to find his dead daughter Gilda. In a thematic sense, one could say that the opera establishes a competitive dynamism between different types of love (or eros) – the Duke's erotomania, Gilda's altruistic "romantic" love and Rigoletto's paternal protective eros towards his daughter. It is this dynamism that eventually weaves an unsolvable Gordian knot, as reflected in the sequence of unfortunate events that lead to tragedy - until Gilda's sacrifice to save the life of the man she loves from the vengeful hand of her father.

The fact that with Rigoletto Verdi opened a completely new chapter in his own compositional dispositif is shown above all in the fact that he did not conceive of the opera as a hitherto established numerical sequence of musical points (according to the principle of numbered opera), but as a uniform and pregnant musical-dramatic structure, as evidenced by also many rhythmic elements. Thus, it is no coincidence that Gilda's aria Caro nome, professing her love for a false student (the Duke in disguise), is accompanied by the same rhythmic movement as Rigoletto's plaint Larà, larà, with which the court fool tries to hide his despair from the courtiers while searching for clues about the kidnapped daughters. Verdi was absolutely right when he saw a new level of musical theater in Rigoletto, as it still touches us today with its melodic beauty and deep musical-psychological expressiveness.

English

Verdijevo opero Rigoletto velja še danes, po velikem časovnem razkoraku od njenega časa nastanka, razumeti kot revolucionarno mojstrovino opernega skladatelja, ki si je z naslednjima dvema operama Trubadur in La traviata dokončno utrdil mednarodni ugled najpomembnejšega predstavnika italijanske opere. Da je Verdi z Rigolettom storil pomenljiv in pomemben korak naprej v smeri intenzivnejše glasbene drame, se kaže v lastni skladateljevi percepciji, saj je Verdi še vrsto let po praizvedbi 11. marca 1851 v beneškem gledališču La Fenice opero Rigoletto pojmoval kot svoje najboljše delo. V Rigolettu je Verdi namreč opustil iskanje pompoznejših zvočnih učinkov in se odločil za bolj subtilno in rafinirano orkestracijo. Glasbeni tok, ki v prejšnjih Verdijevih delih še kaže ostro razmejitev vokala in inštrumentalne spremljave, je tukaj zlit v koherentno celoto, pri čemer orkester prevzema aktivno vlogo pri oblikovanju dramaturgije opernega dogajanja.

Partitura kar sama od sebe ponuja številne ikonične glasbene “točke”, med katerimi gotovo izstopajo Gildina arija Caro nome, Vojvodova kancona La donna è mobile in kvartet Un dì, se ben rammentomi – Bella figlia dell’amore, medtem ko se tudi libreto v verzih Francesca Marie Piaveja kaže kot psihološko poglobljeno “branje” opernih oseb, ki jih v osnovi povezuje nepomirljiv trikotnik med razuzdanim Vojvodo Mantovanskim, grbastim dvornim norcem Rigolettom in njegovo hčerko Gildo, ki podleže ljubezenskim čarom nestanovitnega Vojvoda. Prekletstvo, ki ga nad Vojvodom in Rigolettom izreče grof Monterone, in na sploh “metafizika zla”, ki jo je Verdi leta 1839 občutil na lastni koži po tragični izgubi svoje prve žene Margherite Barezzi ter dveh otrok Virginie in Icilia, se tako izkaže kot osrednji instrument tragičnosti opere. Omenjeno prekletstvo, ki ga nad Vojvodo in Rigolettom izreče grof Monterone, se tako kot idée fixe vpenja v samo hrbtenico odrskega dogajanja, kot je zapisal sam Verdi v svojem pismu libretistu Piaveju: “Prekletstvo, ki predstavlja osnovno temo, ima tudi moralni pomen. Nesrečni oče, ki se pritožuje nad izgubljeno častjo svoje hčere, prekolne norca (Rigoletta, op. a.), ki se posmehuje iz njega, in njegova kletev se uresniči s posebno silovitostjo …”

Z vidika glasbene reprezentacije omenjenega prekletstva se Verdi poslužuje reminiscenčnega motiva v obliki ponavljajočega se akorda, ki se v izvedbi trobente in pozavne pojavi že v prvih taktih opere, nato pa še večkrat in poslednjič v trenutku, ko Rigoletto z grozo najde svojo mrtvo hčerko Gildo. V tematskem smislu bi lahko rekli, da se v operi vzpostavlja konkurenčni dinamizem med različnimi tipi ljubezni (ali erosa) – Vojvodovo erotomanijo, Gildino altruistično “romantično” ljubeznijo in Rigolettovim očetovskim zaščitniškim erosom do hčerke. Prav ta dinamizem naposled splete nerešljiv gordijski vozel, kot se zrcali v zaporedju nesrečnih dogodkov, ki vodijo v tragičnost – vse do Gildinega žrtvovanja, da bi rešila življenje moškega, ki ga ljubi, pred maščevalno roko svojega očeta.

Da je Verdi z Rigolettom odprl povsem novo poglavje lastnega kompozicijskega dispozitiva, se kaže predvsem v dejstvu, da si opere ni zamislil kot dotlej ustaljenega številčnega zaporedja glasbenih točk (po načelu oštevilčene opere), temveč kot enovito in pregnantno glasbeno-dramatično strukturo, kar dokazujejo tudi številne ritmične prvine. Tako ni naključje, da Gildino arijo Caro nome, ki izpoveduje njeno ljubezen do lažnega študenta (zamaskiranega Vojvodo), spremlja isto ritmično gibanje kot Rigolettovo tožbo Larà, larà, s katero skuša dvorni norec prikriti svoj obup pred dvorjani, medtem ko išče sledi o ugrabljeni hčerki. Verdi je imel tako povsem prav, ko je v Rigolettu videl novo raven glasbenega gledališča, saj se nas ta še danes dotakne z melodično lepoto ter z globoko glasbeno-psihološko ekspresivnostjo.

slovenščina

Rigoletto by Verdi, Sun 15 May 2022, From (2022/2022), Directed by Pier Francesco Maestrini,, Conductor Francesco Rosa, SNG, Maribor, Slovenia

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