Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House London
Wed 25 March 2026 - Thu 23 April 2026
7pm
The Duke of Mantua is a serial womaniser. At a palace party, not content with the married Countess Ceprano, the Duke reveals he is also infatuated with a mysterious woman he has seen in church. The hunchbacked jester Rigoletto jokes that the Duke should have the Countess’s husband murdered. Count Ceprano vows to kidnap Rigoletto’s lover as punishment. Chaos descends when the elderly Count Monterone arrives and confronts the Duke for seducing his daughter: a third conquest. Rigoletto takes his jesting too far, and the old man curses him and his fellow courtiers.
Rigoletto’s so-called ‘lover’ is in fact his daughter, Gilda, whom he keeps under lock and key at home. She has secretly fallen in love with the Duke of Mantua, who came to her church in disguise. Gilda is kidnapped by Count Ceprano and delivered into the Duke’s clutches. Rigoletto engages an assassin to exact his revenge. But before the day is out, the old man’s curse will exert its deadly power.
Rigoletto leads a double life. As jester to the Duke of Mantua, he is a master of cruelty. As father to his daughter, Gilda, his love knows no bounds. Rigoletto has done everything in his power to keep these worlds separate, and his daughter safe. But when the Duke sees something he wants, he gets it. And what the Duke wants, is Gilda.
Rigoletto is Verdi‘s most famous opera. It features the popular aria, ‘La donna è mobile’ (‘Women are fickle’), the Duke’s light-hearted song which returns with chilling irony at the end of the opera. By contrast, Gilda’s aria, ‘Caro nome’, is a soaring, fluttering evocation of young love. In Oliver Mears‘ acclaimed staging, Verdi’s masterpiece is presented as a modern morality play, pitting power against innocence in a world of decadence and corruption. Verdi specialist Mark Elder marks his 50th anniversary as a conductor for The Royal Opera, leading an array of wonderful singers including George Petean and Daniel Luis de Vicente (in his Royal Opera debut) as Rigoletto, Liparit Avetisyan and Iván Ayón Rivas (in his Royal Opera debut) as the Duke, and Aida Garifullina, Rosa Feola and Robyn Allegra Parton as Gilda.
