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Verdi’s Rigoletto

From the New York Met: Luca Salsi stars as Verdi's hunchbacked jester Rigoletto, whose implacable quest for vengeance brings only personal tragedy to himself and his daughter.

From the New York Met: Luca Salsi stars as the hunchbacked jester whose implacable quest for vengeance brings only personal tragedy to himself and to his daughter.

Presented by Debra Lew Harder with commentator Ira Siff.

Rigoletto is the Duke of Mantua's hunchbacked jester who revels in mocking and humiliating the courtiers by encouraging the Duke to have his way with their wives and daughters. But in the end it is his own daughter Gilda who is raped by the Duke, and in his quest for vengeance it is Rigoletto himself who unwittingly commissions her murder.

Verdi's compelling masterpiece of ineluctable fate and the futility of retribution is full of profound psychological insights and some of his greatest music including the Duke of Mantua's jaunty, ever-popular aria 'La donna Γ¨ mobile' which, as he sings of the inconstancy of women, is a grotesque moment of blackly humorous dramatic irony.

Rigoletto ..... Luca Salsi (baritone)
Gilda ..... Lisette Oropesa (soprano)
Duke of Mantua ..... Stephen Costello (tenor)
Sparafucile ..... John Relyea (bass)
Maddalena ..... Aigul Akhmetshina (contralto)
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Conductor Speranza Scappucci

3 hours, 29 minutes

Last on

Sat 17 Dec 2022 18:30

Music Played

  • Giuseppe Verdi

    Rigoletto Fantasy for two flutes and orchestra

    Performer: Emmanuel Pahud. Performer: Juliette Hurel. Music Arranger: Franz Doppler. Music Arranger: Karl Doppler. Orchestrator: Gamzou. Orchestra: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Yannick NΓ©zet‐SΓ©guin.
    • EMI.
  • Franz Schubert

    Sonata for arpeggione and piano (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Jean‐Guihen Queyras. Performer: Alexandre Tharaud.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Franz Schubert

    Impromptu in C minor, D 899 No 1

    Performer: Lambert Orkis.
    • Schubert: Impromptus D899 & D935, Lambert Orkis (piano).
    • Virgin Classics.
    • 1.

Broadcast

  • Sat 17 Dec 2022 18:30