Rigoletto

In selecting Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo (1832), a play that was banned after the first performance, the socially engaged composer Giuseppe Verdi once again chose an edgy, topical subject for an opera. Verdi shows us a degenerate milieu where transgressive behaviour is the rule rather than the exception. When the cynical court jester Rigoletto is cursed by the father of one of the Duke’s victims, he is gripped by paranoia. Eventually, his worst fears come true.

Focus on Rigoletto’s psyche

Damiano Michieletto, who previously directed Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims (2015) and Raskatov’s Animal Farm (2023) for Dutch National Opera, focuses on the nervous, broken character of Rigoletto. The tortured man finds himself in a psychiatric institution, where he relives the events of his life in the form of flashbacks. Michieletto’s interpretation already made a deep impression on audiences and the press at the Amsterdam premiere in 2017. Some key changes to the production were made for a recent performance run in Venice. Now, Rigoletto will return to Dutch National Opera in this revised, sharpened version.

The energetic young conductor Yi-Chen Lin will be leading the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in her debut with Dutch National Opera. She can rely on an impressive cast of singers: baritone Roman Burdenko is returning to Amsterdam as Verdi’s tormented father after his powerful interpretation of Tonio in Cavalleria rusticana. Tenor René Barbera, acclaimed for his ringing voice, will sing the role of the wayward Duke of Mantua and up-and-coming soprano Aigul Khismatullina will make her Amsterdam debut as Gilda.