Rigoletto

Opera

Giuseppe Verdi becomes so engrossed in writing this work that he falls into an absolute obsession with it. That is why he manages to complete this opera in just 40 days. Perhaps it is also due to this short, intense creative period that the original title, The Curse, was later changed several times. The all-powerful political and religious censorship of the time intervenes and even imposes certain changes in the libretto. Verdi remains unyielding and succeeds in preserving the central idea: how ruthless, cynically exercised power brings with it the burden of a curse, which, as retribution, falls upon the fate of innocent victims. Still, in order to protect the authority of the monarchical institution in Italy, censorship requires that the names and setting be changed. Thus King Francis I becomes the Duke of Mantua, and the jester Triboulet — a character from François Rabelais and Victor Hugo’s The King Amuses Himself — becomes Rigoletto. He was originally called Tribuleto, but later became Rigoletto, derived from the French rigolote — funny. The premiere of Rigoletto took place on 11 March 1851 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and was a triumphant success. Verdi was applauded literally after every musical number. He was immensely pleased with his work and in a letter from that time wrote that he would “perhaps never write anything more beautiful.” Just a few months after its Venice premiere, Rigoletto was triumphantly staged in the theaters of Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and London. In Ruse, however, Rigoletto arrived a century after its creation — on 21 April 1952, with conductor Konstantin Iliev and director Mihail Hadzhimishev — and to this day it remains on the stage of the Ruse Opera.

Conductor: Dimitar Kosev

Chorus Master: Steliyana Dimitrova-Hernani

Director: Nina Naydenova

Set Design: Elitsa Georgieva

Costumes: Yana Dvoretska

Characters and performers:

Rigoletto – Dobromir Momekov /guest/, Aleksandar Krunev

Gilda – Maria Anastasova

Duke – Mihail Mihaylov

Sparafucile – Momchil Milanov

Maddalena – Gloriya Pencheva

Giovanna – Tetyana Kamilova

Count Ceprano – Stoyan Stoyandzhov

Countess Ceprano – Ruina Saraniti

Borsa – Ivan Penchev, Bogdan Lupea

Monterone – Deyan Kostadinov

Marullo – Stanislav Maslyanka

Court Usher – Boril Dimitrov

Page – Gergana Garvalova

Chorus and Orchestra of the State Opera - Ruse